
MARY H .WADE 


















































Copyright N°. 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 







THE WONDER - WORKERS 





Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 


Thomas A. Edison. Frontispiece. 











THE 

WONDER-WORKERS 


BY 

MARY H. WADE 

»j 

Author of “ New Little Indians,” etc. 


ILLUSTRATED 


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l 

•9 9 

) ) ) 


BOSTON 

LITTLE, BROWN, AND 


1912 


COMPANY 


A 


\ 

I 


Copyright , iqi2 y 

By Little, Brown, and Company, 
All rights reserved 

Published, September, 191a 


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» * l 

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• « ♦ 

* m * 

Electrotyped and Printed by 
THE COLONIAL PRESS 
C- H. Simondo & Co., Boston, U. S. A. 



SCI.A319664 



TO 

MY NIECE MABEL 


A WONDER-WORKER IN GENTLE KINDLINESS 




PREFACE 

There are few boys and girls who have 
not taken delight in fairy tales. Cinder¬ 
ella and her glass slipper, The Sleeping 
Beauty, and Jack the Giant Killer can 
never be forgotten. They are stories of 
deeds so wonderful that although we fol¬ 
low them with delight, we feel that they 
cannot be true. They could happen only 
in a realm where fairies dwell, and here, 
alas! in this matter-of-fact world of our 
own, fairies can have no existence. 

Yet, strange as it may seem, in our very 
midst people are living who are doing 
things quite as wonderful as those related 
in fairy books. 

One of these Wonder-Workers is Luther 
Burbank, the Flower-Magician. Even 
when a tiny baby, he showed his love for 
flowers. Later, when he grew to be a man, 


PREFACE 


• • • 

Vlll 

he put his mind and will to work upon 
them, till at last all the world held its 
breath. “ Look! ” people said, “A man 
like ourselves has changed the nature of 
plants. He has created new and beautiful 
flowers. He has given us fruits never 
found on the earth before.” 

The blind deaf-mute, Helen Keller, has 
worked wonders in a quite different way. 
Before her second birthday illness seized 
the merry, active girl-baby, and shut her 
out forever from those things which we 
look on as the most precious gifts we 
possess. The child could no longer see the 
beautiful sky, the graceful trees, the deli¬ 
cate flowers. She would never again hear 
her mother’s voice or the sweet singing of 
birds. She would lose the power to speak 
and the meaning of words, because sound 
had become dead to her. The beautiful 
soul was still there, but it was shut up so 
closely in its prison house, the body, that 
Helen’s dearest friends could not reach 
her and help the lonely little girl to bear 
her new, strange life. But in time a teacher 



PREFACE 


IX 


came to her, and, with her help, the magic 
gift of touch was set to work. 

Through touch, Helen’s mind was trained 
so that she could enjoy the beauty of the 
many forms around her, and get delight 
from waves of sound, when, moving through 
the air, they reached her face and hands. 
The sense of touch was still kept busy 
while the child learned that, as the soft 
breezes blowing against her face brought a 
feeling of pleasure, there were other things 
which she could feel in the heart alone, — 
the feeling of love for others and of de¬ 
light in doing good. 

As time passed by, it was through the 
sense of touch that Helen became able to 
read books printed in raised type and thus 
learn the thoughts of the wise and good. 
Touching the throats of her friends while 
they were speaking, the child, after months of 
patient struggle, gained the power to speak. 

Now a college graduate, Helen Keller is 
not satisfied, but is still busy reading the 
best books of all times and writing out her 
own beautiful thoughts for the good of 




X 


PREFACE 


others. She is the greatest magician of 
touch the world has ever known. 

Wonderful work is being done to-day by 
William Reuben George, who has shown 
this country how much magic there is in 
sympathy. His first years were spent in 
the country. Afterwards he moved to the 
great city of New York, where he became 
interested in the children of the poor, — 
boys and girls who were crowded together 
in dark, cheerless tenements, and spent 
their playtime in the city streets. 

Mr. George longed to bring happiness to 
these children. He planned and worked 
till he had made a vacation camp in the 
country for them. But he was not satisfied 
till he had established a Home where the 
children of the poor could be happy and 
comfortable all the year round. To make 
this possible, however, they must govern 
and support themselves. 

Never was such a thing done before, 
but Mr. George showed the people who 
laughed at the idea that it was possible. 
To-day visitors from all over the world 



PREFACE 


xi 


go to visit the George Junior Republic 
in Western New York, while other repub¬ 
lics have been started on the same plan 
in different parts of the United States. 

Thomas Alva Edison has shown what 
magic can be wrought by sound as well as 
by electricity. Although his parents were 
poor and he had little schooling, the boy’s 
mind was busy learning all it could of the 
great world around him. He spent his 
spare time in reading books and making 
experiments. As he grew older, he gave 
to the world inventions which filled people 
with wonder. One of the greatest of these 
is the phonograph, or “ talking machine ” 
as it was first called. Mr. Edison is a rich 
man to-day, yet he is never idle. With 
his mind full of new inventions, he is never 
so happy as when experimenting in his 
workshop. 

Miss Jane Addams has shown the world 
what magic can be wrought by a heart 
filled with the spirit of friendship. 

At Hull House, in the heart of the city 
of Chicago, Miss Addams has made a 



PREFACE 


• • 

Xll 

beautiful home, where the poorest people 
are made welcome. Old and young are 
helped and made happy here. There is a 
gymnasium for the boys. There are classes 
in music, drawing and sewing. Plays, 
concerts and other entertainments, given 
in the big hall, are free to all. The sick, 
the needy and the lonely are sure of help 
and cheer if they seek Miss Addams. 
Each new year finds more men and women, 
more boys and girls, who look upon this 
lady as the truest friend they have ever 
known. 

Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell has a heart so 
filled with love for others that he has 
scarcely time to think of himself. Dr. 
Grenfell spends his life among the families 
of the poor fishermen along the bleak 
coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador. 
He goes where no physician has ever been 
before. He heals the sick; he carries food 
and clothing to the needy; he even pro¬ 
vides dolls and toys for children who did 
not know the joys of Christmas time till 
he came among them. 




PREFACE 


« • • 
Xlll 

He cheers and comforts the people by 
talking with them about the Heavenly 
Father, who is Love itself. He cures 
sick minds as well as sick bodies. 

Judge Benjamin B. Lindsey, a magician of 
faith, has worked wonders among boys who 
have broken the laws of the State and were 
considered bad by other people. Judge 
Lindsey believed that they did wrong 
because they had not been treated fairly. 
He had such faith in them that he felt 
sure they would become good and helpful 
if they understood what was right. He 
saw that in the first place the laws ought 
to be altered. They should not be the 
same for old people and for young. His 
ideas were laughed at, and he was called 
hard names; yet he worked with all his 
might to bring about the needed change. 
In the meantime he showed the young 
people who were brought into court for 
doing wrong, that he had faith in them. 
They were proud of the trust, and tried 
to be better so that their good friend might 
not be disappointed. At last the laws 



XIV 


PREFACE 


were changed as Judge Lindsey had wished, 
and he has already lived to see many young 
people who had begun to follow wrong 
ways, so changed that they are now grow¬ 
ing up into happy, helpful men and women. 

When you have read the story of what 
Judge Lindsey has done, as well as of the 
other Wonder-Workers described in this 
little book, you will no doubt agree with 
me that there are magicians in our own 
world to-day who are as great as those 
belonging to the kingdom of fairies. 





CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

Preface . 



PAGE 

• • 

I. 

The Flower-Magician . 

. . I 

II. 

The Magician 

of 

Touch 

. . 34 

III. 

The Magician 

OF 

Sympathy 

• • 54 

IV. 

The Magician 

OF 

Sound 

• • 95 

V. 

The Magician 

OF 

Friendship 

. . 121 

VI. 

The Magician 

OF 

Love . 

. . I 48 

VII. 

The Magician 

OF 

Faith . 

. . I 78 






I 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


Thomas A. Edison. Frontispiece 

Luther Burbank. Page 22 ^ 

Helen Keller in conversation with a little 

friend. “52^ 

Jane Addams.“ 146 ^ 

Dr. Grenfell on his steamer, the Strath- 

cona . “176 

Judge Lindsey in his juvenile court, Den¬ 
ver ........ “ 190 y 








THE 

WONDER - WORKERS 

i 

THE FLOWER - MAGICIAN 

What has been most interesting to you 
in the fairy stories that you have read? 
Was it not the magic wand by means of 
which common stones were turned into 
gold, and rags into silk and satin garments? 

It was very wonderful, and no doubt 
you wished for such a wand yourself, 
but believed it was quite impossible to 
possess one, even if you hunted the world 
over. 

Now there is a quiet man in the western 
part of the United States who has found 
a magic wand and uses it for the good of 


2 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


others. If he were selfish and thought 
only of what he could gain for himself, it 
might become useless. 

The name of this man is Luther Burbank, 
and the wand which he possesses was given 
him by no fairy godmother. It is his own 
patient, observing mind which has knocked 
so persistently at Dame Nature’s door, 
that she has been forced to open and reveal 
her secrets. 

This great magician is generally spoken 
of as the most successful breeder of plants 
in the world, which he has not only made 
richer by giving us new fruits and vege¬ 
tables, but more beautiful with new and 
lovelier flowers. 

Luther Burbank was born in the little 
town of Lancaster, Massachusetts, on the 
seventh of March, 1849. The boy’s father 
was a great lover of books; his mother cared 
most for the beautiful things in the world 
around her. As Luther grew up he showed 
a love for both beautiful thoughts and 
beautiful objects. He had the nature of 
both parents. 



THE FLOWER - MAGICIAN 3 


Even when he was a baby he was not 
like other children. Sometimes, as he lay 
in his cradle, his mother or one of his 
sisters would bring a flower and place it in 
his tiny hands. He would not crush or 
drop it, as other babies would have done, 
but would hold it tenderly until it drooped 
and faded. It seemed as though he felt 
in some dim way that it was a living thing. 
One day something happened to one of the 
flowers which Luther’s sister had brought 
him. A petal fell off while the baby was 
holding it. This seemed to trouble him 
very much. He picked up the petal and 
tried to put it back in its place. He worked 
very patiently to make it perfect once 
more, but the tiny fingers could not do 
what the busy mind wished so much. 

As the baby grew older and could trot 
about from place to place, he did not care 
for pet animals, like most children. In¬ 
stead of these he chose plants for his 
friends. One of the plants which he loved 
very dearly was a lobster-cactus. It grew 
in a pot and, with this in his arms, the 



4 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


little fellow would toddle about, indoors 
and out. 

One day a sad thing happened. Luther 
fell down, and the plant which he was 
carrying so tenderly was broken from its 
stem. He could not be comforted; he felt 
that he had lost a dear friend. 

As he grew up, he was sent to school. 
All his teachers were pleased with him, 
for they quickly noticed his fondness for 
study. It was not only what he found in 
the books of the schoolroom, however, 
that interested him. A very great book was 
spread out for him to read in the world 
around him. It was the book of Nature. 
The pages were so many that there was no 
end to the treasures to be found there. 
The birds and the insects, the flowers and 
the trees — there was so much to learn 
about them! Luther never grew tired of 
his studies. 

He enjoyed boys’ sports, too. He played 
games; he fished and hunted; but after all 
he was happiest when in the company of 
Nature herself. His eyes were so bright 



THE FLOWER - MAGICIAN 5 


that they saw many things which others 
passed by. 

One day he was standing near some men 
who were putting together the parts of a 
mower. There was one piece for which 
they could not find the proper place. 
The boy watched them quietly, but did not 
speak until they were about to stop trying. 
Then he stepped up to one of them and 
pointed to a place on the machine where 
he thought the bit of iron should be put. 
The man did as the boy suggested, and lo! 
the mower was complete and ready for 
use. 

“ But how did you know that was the 
place for the piece of iron?” somebody 
asked him. 

“ Because you couldn’t put it anywhere 
else,” Luther answered. 

One of the dearest of his friends was a 
young cousin, the son of a minister. This 
boy was also fond of Nature, but particu¬ 
larly of rocks and stones, the study of 
which we call geology. He was much older 
than Luther, and was a close friend of 



6 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


Agassiz, the great scientist. No doubt 
this young man helped to keep his cousin 
interested in the wonders of the world 
around him. 

When Luther was old enough, he studied 
in the academy of his home town in the 
winter. Then, when summer came, he 
worked in a factory in Worcester. The 
days in the factory were long and the work 
was hard, while the wages were small. 
Luther received three dollars a week, and 
it cost him at least three dollars and a half 
a week to feed and clothe himself. 

Though he worked so hard, he was not 
supporting himself. But the boy was not 
discouraged. He set his mind to work and 
invented a machine which would do the 
work of six men. The people who employed 
him were so pleased that they raised his 
pay. 

“ That boy will be a great inventor yet,” 
many a person thought in those days. He 
might have become one, without doubt, 
but when the time came for him to decide 
upon his life-work, he chose something 



THE FLOWER - MAGICIAN 7 


which no one else could have done, and he 
has never been sorry. 

Summer after summer he worked in the 
factory, but never for one day did he 
forget the work which he knew he loved 
best in the world. He wished to help 
Nature by making old things better than 
they were, and new things better than the 
old. 

At last the time arrived when Luther 
left the factory for good, and began to 
raise seeds and vegetables in a little market- 
garden. A great day came — it was ,a red 
letter day in the young man’s life and could 
never be forgotten. He found himself 
greater than an inventor; he was a creator. 

Some time before this he had been 
watching the potatoes in his garden very 
closely. The green tops were not all alike, 
and one of them had something not found 
in any of the others. It was a seed-ball. 

Luther said to himself: “ If I plant this 
seed-ball, quite different potatoes will grow 
from it than from the other plants.” 

He watched the seed-ball carefully. One 



8 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


day, when he went to look at it, it was 
gone. He was greatly disappointed. What 
could have become of it? He began to 
look around, and at last found it upon the 
ground, where a stray dog had possibly 
knocked it down as he ran past. 

From this very seed-ball came the deli¬ 
cious Burbank potato. No doubt your 
father has heard of it, but perhaps he did 
not think of the man who developed it. 
At the very time when Mr. Burbank first 
raised it in his little market-garden, many 
people feared that there would soon be a 
potato famine, because these vegetables 
were becoming poorer every year. 

It is now said that this country has 
gained twenty millions of dollars through 
Mr. Burbank’s discovery. He himself sold 
the seed which he had raised for one hun¬ 
dred and fifty dollars. 

Soon afterward he had a slight sunstroke 
from working in his garden on a hot sum¬ 
mer’s day. When he got better, he thought 
of California, where he felt he could live 
out-of-doors without any fear of the sun. 



THE FLOWER - MAGICIAN 9 


Then he could work to his heart’s content 
among his plants. 

Not long afterwards he started for Cali¬ 
fornia, taking with him ten of his new 
potatoes. He was now twenty-one years 
old and had saved only a small sum of 
money. He reached San Francisco and 
then traveled northward till he came to a 
valley among the Coast Range mountains. 

When he arrived there he tried to find 
work, but it was not so easy to get as he 
had hoped. He went from one place to 
another and failed each time. His money 
was going fast, and he was almost dis¬ 
couraged. Then he heard that help was 
needed on a new building in a town not 
far away. He went to the place and asked 
for work. 

“ But you have no tools,” he was told. 
“ Get a shingling hatchet and you may have 
the job.” 

He went away and spent nearly all the 
money he had left for a new hatchet. He 
came back quite sure that he could now 
get work; but, sad to say, some one else 



10 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


had been given the job while he was 
gone. 

He did not stop to think of his bad for¬ 
tune, but set out once more, and this time 
he got a chance to clean coops on a chicken 
ranch. For months afterwards he slept 
in one of the coops every night because 
he did not receive pay enough to hire 
a room. Sometimes this work on the 
chicken farm failed and the young man did 
not have money to buy enough food to 
keep him alive. Then he was obliged to 
go to the meat market in the village, where 
he was given the bones which had been 
laid aside for dogs. He gnawed away the 
meat from these and thus satisfied his hunger. 

After a while he got work in the nursery 
of a hothouse. The job was a steady one, 
but the pay was so small that even now 
Mr. Burbank did not have money enough 
to hire a good lodging. His employer 
allowed him to sleep in a bare room over 
the hothouse. It was so damp there that the 
young man’s clothing was wet all the time. 

He had never been very strong, and 




THE FLOWER - MAGICIAN 11 


before long the hard work and the damp¬ 
ness brought on a fever. A kind-hearted 
neighbor found out how sick and poor he 
was. She was poor herself and had a large 
family to care for, but she insisted on 
bringing him every day some of the fresh 
milk which her one cow gave her. 

Mr. Burbank begged her not to do this. 
He might not live to be able to pay her 
for her kindness. But the good woman 
would not listen to him and insisted on 
giving him daily a pint of milk. There is 
no doubt that this kept him from dying. 

Think of it! this man who had already 
done what would gain for his country 
millions of dollars and who was yet to be¬ 
come one of the great people of the world, 
was sick and starving, kept alive by the 
generosity and charity of a poor woman. 

He was brave and hopeful through all 
this trouble, and at last the fever left him. 
Then, pale and thin, he started out once 
more in search of work. He was able to 
find it now. He took one job after another, 
and as the weeks passed by he managed 



12 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


to save small sums of money, which he put 
in the bank. 

All this time he had one ambition. As 
soon as possible he would have a garden 
of his own, where he could work and make 
experiments. More than this, he would 
create new plants. It was a happy day 
for him when he had saved enough money 
to get a small plot of ground where he could 
start a nursery. His heart sang a song of 
joy and gladness, yet he little thought that 
the time would come when people all over 
the country would speak of the wonders 
of this place. 

He was now quite well. Every morning 
found him at his work; every evening saw 
him tired, yet happy and contented. One 
day an order came from a man who wished 
to start a ranch for raising prunes. He 
asked Mr. Burbank for twenty thousand 
young prune trees. He must have them all 
ready in nine months. 

“ I will fill that order,” the young nursery¬ 
man said to himself. But how was it to be 
done ? Any one else would require at least 



THE FLOWER - MAGICIAN 13 


two years and a half to get so many trees 
ready for planting. No matter how care¬ 
fully they were nursed, they would grow 
only so fast. Now it was that Burbank 
began to play the magician. He would 
make use of a secret which he had forced 
Nature to give up to him. First of all, he 
sent out in different directions for men and 
boys to work for him. 

As soon as they arrived he set them to 
planting almonds. Perhaps you wonder 
what almonds can have to do with prunes, 
but you will quickly find out. It was 
already late in the season, but the almond 
seed would sprout at this time when any 
other which could be used in the way that 
Mr. Burbank planned would not sprout. 
Then, too, the almond tree grows very fast. 

As the seeds sprouted and shot up into 
the air, it seemed to the young nurseryman 
that he could see them grow. The time soon 
came when they were ready for budding. 
Twenty thousand prune buds had been 
made ready by this time and these were 
budded into the young almond shoots. 



14 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


You can hardly realize how eagerly Mr. 
Burbank watched and tended his nursery. 
Everything went well, and when the nine 
months came to an end, behold! there were 
twenty thousand prune trees ready for the 
ranchman. He was very much pleased, and 
gladly paid Mr. Burbank a sum of money 
which made him feel quite rich. 

It is twenty years since the young nursery¬ 
man forced Nature to help him by letting 
one kind of tree work for another, but if 
you should visit California, you may see 
that prune orchard, and you will be told 
that it is one of the best in the State. 

Mr. Burbank loved his work, and was 
anxious to succeed, but he was very honest. 
Everything he raised must be exactly what 
he said it was. Before long, people found 
this out. They would say: “ If this thing 
comes from Burbank, it must be all right.” 
You can see that they trusted him perfectly. 

A time came when he needed some extra 
money. If he did not have it, he could not 
go on with his work; but he did not know 
of any one who would lend it to him. 



THE FLOWER - MAGICIAN 15 


One day, when he had given up all hope 
of doing what he wished, he saw a team 
of horses coming down the road. Behind 
them sat a man who was said to be a great 
miser. Before the man reached him, he 
began shouting to Mr. Burbank. He said 
he had been watching him for a long time, 
and liked the way in which he attended to 
his business. He felt that the young man 
did not have as easy a time as he should. 
Did he not need some extra money now? 

Mr. Burbank answered that he could use 
one hundred dollars that very day, and that 
it would be of great help to him. At this 
the man whom everybody called mean and 
miserly pulled out his wallet and handed 
out two hundred dollars. How astonished 
Mr. Burbank was! 

As the visitor drove away he called out: 
“ No, I don’t want no note, nor no interest, 
neither: when you get ready to pay it, 
all right. G’long there.” 

From this time Mr. Burbank was more 
and more successful in his business. It was 
not very long before he was making ten 



16 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


thousand dollars a year. But he was not 
satisfied. He had been reading the best 
books about plant growing, and thinking, 
and making new plans all the time. His 
nursery was good, but he thought and felt 
that he could do still better and greater 
work than he had already done. 

After thinking it over very carefully, 
the day came when he said: “ I will sell 
my nursery, and will give all my time to 
breeding new plants.” 

“ How foolish! ” thought his friends. 
They tried their best to make him keep on 
with his old work. Give up ten thousand 
dollars a year for the sake of his dream! 
Surely he must listen to reason. 

But he would not listen, and it was not 
a dream. He had thought the matter over 
very carefully. The nursery should be 
sold, — and sold it was. 

Then Mr. Burbank began on the work 
that was dearest to his heart. He took new 
fruits and flowers, or old ones that had been 
improved through great care and nursing. 
From these he made still others that were 



THE FLOWER - MAGICIAN 17 


better or more beautiful. Slowly but surely 
he met with success. 

People all over the world began to hear 
of Luther Burbank and the wonderful 
things he was doing. He had actually 
created new berries, new flowers, new fruits. 
He was Nature’s helper in making the world 
richer and more beautiful than before. 
His friends must have laughed when they 
thought of the minister who asked Mr. 
Burbank to attend his church one morning 
in order to hear a sermon he was to 
preach. 

The young man did as he was asked, 
but found to his surprise that the sermon 
was about himself. It had been written 
to show how wicked the minister thought 
he was for daring to change plants from 
what God had made them, or to create 
new forms. He was setting himself up 
against God. This minister, you see, did 
not understand Mr. Burbank or his love 
for Nature. Instead of setting himself 
against God and His handiwork, he was 
using the talents the Great Father had be- 



18 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


stowed on him in helping to make what 
He had given more useful and beautiful. 

As time went by Mr. Burbank found 
that he needed a great deal of money to 
carry out his plans. 

“ What a mistake it was for him to give 
up his nursery,” thought his friends. “ He 
should have been satisfied with that.” 
Other people, like the minister who had 
preached the sermon against him, believed 
that he was really doing wrong. Still 
others tried to take away his good name. 
“ He is only pretending to do great things,” 
they declared. But after they had visited 
him and watched him at his work, they 
went away ashamed of themselves for mis¬ 
judging him. 

He had already made the world more 
beautiful. He had already made his country 
richer by millions of dollars. But he had 
plans for doing still greater things. That 
he might have the money to carry them out 
was his dearest wish. 

At last help came. In the city of Wash¬ 
ington there is an Institution founded by 



THE FLOWER - MAGICIAN 19 


the rich Scotchman, Andrew Carnegie. 
It is called the Carnegie Institution, and 
its work is to help such people as Luther 
Burbank. 

After carefully examining what he was 
doing, it decided that one hundred thousand 
dollars should be set apart for his use. Each 
year he should be given ten thousand dol¬ 
lars of this sum to use in his work in what¬ 
ever way he might think best. 

You can scarcely imagine how happy 
Mr. Burbank was when he learned that he 
was to receive this help. It was not that 
he himself was to be more comfortable. 
Indeed he would henceforth work harder 
than ever if this could be possible. But 
he could now make some of his dreams 
real, and this thought made him happier 
than fine palaces and rich jewels could 
make many other people. 

Perhaps you would like to hear of some 
of the good and beautiful things which 
never grew upon the earth until Mr. Bur¬ 
bank’s busy mind and hands set to work. 
You have probably seen cactus plants 



20 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


with their sharp thorns and prickly leaves. 
As you looked at them you felt that you 
did not care to handle them. These plants 
have their home in the hot deserts, and 
woe to the poor horse who plants his foot 
among them. 

Mr. Burbank thought about the cactus 
for a long time. Since it grows in the des¬ 
erts where other plants will not thrive, 
he felt it would be good to change it so 
that there would be no sharp thorns or 
spicules on the edges of the leaves. Better 
still, if it could only bear a fruit that would 
be edible, it would furnish food to animals 
and travelers crossing the deserts. 

After much thinking this good man set 
to work, and in the course of time his 
wishes came true. He created cacti which 
were not only thornless but were edible. 
It was as wonderful as the changing of 
Cinderella’s rags into silken garments. 

This new cactus fruit is shaped somewhat 
like a fat cucumber flattened at the ends. 
Sometimes its color is a beautiful yellow. 
Sometimes the flesh is crimson. Every one 



THE FLOWER - MAGICIAN 21 


who tastes it calls it delicious. Some say 
that it reminds them of peaches; others, 
again, declare it is like a melon; still others 
claim it is more like a pineapple. 

After hearing all this, would you not like 
to find yourself in a desert some day with 
these edible cacti growing all about you? 
How did Mr. Burbank create this new 
fruit? How did he change the nature of 
the cactus altogether? 

It is a long story, which would be hard 
for us to understand entirely. But this we 
are told. First of all, Mr. Burbank made 
a picture in his mind of the kind of cactus 
he wished for. The thorns and the spicules 
must be done away with, of course. They 
took much of the strength of the plant. 

Mr. Burbank learned all he could con¬ 
cerning the different kinds of cactus. In 
some countries he found that it bore a 
fruit which could be eaten. In others it 
had few or no thorns. 

“ I will bring three different kinds to¬ 
gether,” he said to himself, “ and from them 
I will breed a plant which shall have all 



22 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


the good qualities of all the different 
cacti that I know.” 

Much time passed by before he could get 
seeds from the different kinds of cactus, 
because they were scattered all over the 
world. After he had obtained them, beds 
of earth were prepared with great care, 
in which thousands of these seeds were 
planted. Then, as the plants grew and 
blossomed, the bees came to help Mr. 
Burbank by carrying the pollen from one 
plant to another. From this came cross¬ 
ings — that is, when the seeds of the 
plants ripened, they were quite different 
from the seeds of the old plants, because 
the germs of life inside of them partook 
of the nature of two very different cacti. 

The habits of the old plants, in which 
they had been growing for perhaps millions 
of years, must be changed. Over and over 
again Mr. Burbank made such crossings, 
for the cacti could not change their habits 
easily and grow in new ways. They were 
like stubborn children. Time and care and 
the greatest of patience were needed. But 




Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 


Luther Burbank. Page 22. 








THE FLOWER - MAGICIAN 23 


the man who had the plan of a useful and 
beautiful cactus in his mind would not be 
discouraged. 

In and out among his plants he would 
go, choosing, out of thousands, one that 
showed a change for the better. From these 
the seeds should be used for the next plant¬ 
ing. Years passed by and at last came a 
new gift to men, by means of which deserts 
can be changed into world-gardens. Even 
now Mr. Burbank is not quite satisfied. 
There is still work to be done before the 
cactus will be quite what he wishes it to be. 

Do you like plums? And did you ever 
taste apricots when fresh-picked from the 
trees? Both these fruits are good, but if 
the qualities which make each one pleasing 
to the taste were added together, what a 
delicious fruit there would be. 

This is what Mr. Burbank thought. 
So he set to work, and kept on working till 
he had produced a new fruit in which the 
plum and apricot were joined together. 
This he named the plumcot. You may 
have heard of it and of its delicious flavor. 



24 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


Perhaps, when you have eaten plums, 
you have wished that they had no pits. 
Possibly Mr. Burbank wished this, too. 
At any rate, he worked until he produced 
a tree which bore plums without pits. He 
has created still others which have the 
delicate flavor of Bartlett pears. 

If you are fond of berries, you may like 
to hear of the princess berry which Mr. 
Burbank made by uniting the raspberry 
and the blackberry. Still more wonderful 
is the berry which he created by joining 
the California dewberry and the raspberry. 
It is so wonderful that it is called the 
phenomenal berry. 

When people heard that Mr. Burbank was 
planning to do these things, they cried out: 
“ It is not possible.” 

To-day they are obliged to say that 
gentle, quiet Mr. Burbank has carried out 
his new and wonderful ideas, and that he 
has made these and many more things 
possible. He is a true magician. 

Do you like the field daisy which is so 
common in many parts of America? The 



THE FLOWER - MAGICIAN 25 


farmers call it a bad weed, for it chokes 
out the grass which they wish to raise 
for hay. 

On the hillsides near Mr. Burbank’s 
New England home many wild flowers 
grew. As a boy he loved them all. He 
watched for their coming in the springtime. 
He knew how late in the autumn he could 
find them. They were his dear friends. 
Among them was the little field daisy, so 
common that many pass it by without 
noticing its beauty. 

After Luther Burbank grew up and be¬ 
came a man, he remembered this little 
friend of his childhood. He thought: 
“ I will make a daisy which every one will 
admire.” 

He learned that in England there are 
daisies which are larger and have coarser 
stems than those which he had always 
known. In far-away Japan this flower is 
small, but of the purest white. The 
New England daisy, though neither large 
nor perfectly white, is strong. It cannot 
be easily killed. He would join together 



26 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


the best daisies of the three continents, 
and make a fourth one which should pos¬ 
sess the best qualities of each. He trusted 
in Nature to help him and she did not 
disappoint him. 

Think of it! before Mr. Burbank could 
make what he wished, he had to plant 
hundreds of thousands of daisies. He had 
to give them the most watchful care. 
Again and again one out of millions was 
chosen on account of the seed it bore. 
Season after season the bees gave their 
aid in carrying the pollen from the blos¬ 
soms of one plant to another. Only the 
strongest plants were allowed to live; for, 
first of all, the new daisy must be strong. 

At last the wonderful Shasta daisy was 
created. There was never such a daisy 
before. It will grow in the cold lands of 
the north as well as close to the equator. 
The flower will remain fresh in water for 
weeks after it has been cut from the plant. 
It is very large and beautiful, with snow- 
white petals and a center of velvety yellow. 

Not far from Mr. Burbank’s California 



THE FLOWER - MAGICIAN 27 


home there is a high mountain peak whose 
summit is always covered with snow. It 
is called Mt. Shasta, this word meaning 
snow. “ I will call my new daisy after the 
mountain peak that I love so well,” Mr. 
Burbank decided, and so it came to be 
known as the Shasta daisy. 

Among other flowers which Mr. Burbank 
has made more beautiful is the amaryllis. 
He has changed it so that it is nearly 
twelve inches in diameter. It is of brilliant 
color, — pink, crimson or scarlet, and some¬ 
times all of these may be found in a single 
blossom. The common amaryllis has a 
slender stem. This would not be strong 
enough to hold the large, new flower. 
Mr. Burbank had to change the nature of 
the whole plant, and before he had finished 
he was able to show an amaryllis with a 
short, thick stem and a stout trunk. 

After the master had given this amaryllis 
to the world, he received a letter which 
touched him deeply. It came from a pro¬ 
fessor in an eastern college. The professor 
told in his letter of a dear son whom 




28 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


he had lost and whom he loved tenderly, 
and of his wish to give the world some to¬ 
ken of the beautiful child who had gone. 
At last he had decided that nothing would 
be better than to plant on the grave of his 
son the amaryllis which Mr. Burbank had 
created. There it grew and was soon 
covered with rich and glorious blossoms. 
No monument could be better fitted to 
his son than this. It is no wonder that Mr. 
Burbank was pleased to hear of the use 
which had been made of one of his plant- 
children. 

Up with the birds, we often say of people 
who rise early to begin the work of the day. 
It might be more fitting to speak of Mr. 
Burbank as up with the bees; for, during 
the season when the pollen is carried from 
flower to flower, those little insects are 
the friends on whom he depends so much 
for help. 

The men who aid him in tending his 
plants are chosen with the greatest care. 
They must love their work or they would 
fail to do it as they should, —and every part 



THE FLOWER - MAGICIAN 29 


of it needs delicate and thoughtful atten¬ 
tion. 

If you could watch the faces of these men 
as they bend over the ground, pulling out 
the weeds, making new beds, digging up 
the delicate plants and setting them out 
in new places, you would see that they 
show pride in their work and the desire 
to help their master in every way possible. 

He moves in and out among them, notic¬ 
ing a thousand things which we would pass 
by without a glance. In a few minutes he 
may have chosen one plant among hundreds 
as the best one of its kind for the especial 
purpose he has in mind. 

Sometimes it is necessary for Mr. Bur¬ 
bank to walk over his entire ranch with¬ 
out stopping for breakfast. But from 
morning until night he is busy, guiding 
and watching his workmen, but also giving 
some time to the letters from all over the 
world which must be answered. 

Others can write a portion of these 
answers for him, but there are some let¬ 
ters that no one but he can attend to, as 



30 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


they come from men who, like himself, 
are studying Nature and wish his help; 
or, it may be, the letters have to do with his 
own work, telling him of new plants and 
seeds he wishes to obtain. 

In a single year Mr. Burbank receives 
about fifty thousand letters. People from 
all over the world go to visit him. They 
desire to know this wonderful man. They 
also wish to see the ranches where his trees 
and plants are growing. One of these 
ranches is at Santa Rosa, where its master 
has his home in a beautiful, vine-covered 
cottage. The other ranch, which is still 
larger, is eight miles away, at Sebastopol. 

It is said that at least six thousand vis¬ 
itors go to Santa Rosa every year. If Mr. 
Burbank should meet and talk with them 
all, he would have no time for the work 
which needs his constant care. So, out of 
all these thousands, only a few people are 
permitted to meet him. 

When one thinks of all he has to attend 
to in one short day, it is no wonder that 
when evening comes this busy man stretches 



THE FLOWER - MAGICIAN 31 


himself out on a couch in his sitting-room 
like a tired child. There he lies for an hour 
or more, resting. By nine o’clock he is 
glad to go to bed and forget his work in 
a long night’s sleep. 

Mr. Burbank does not look strong. In 
fact, he has broken down under his work 
many times since that first fever. If you 
could meet him, you would notice, first of 
all, the clear blue eyes which are always 
changing. Sometimes 7 they dance, and 
sometimes they are filled with sadness, 
and then again they sparkle with some 
bright thought. Children love those eyes, 
and love and trust their owner. Indeed, 
every one who knows Mr. Burbank feels 
his goodness. There is only praise in all 
the country round for the man who came 
to make his home there years ago. 

When Mr. Burbank has a chance to 
rest from his work he prefers to do very 
simple things. Perhaps he takes a tramp 
among the mountains he likes so well. 
It may be that he goes to the seashore for 
a short stay, for he likes the ocean as he 



32 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


does the mountains. Or, perhaps, he visits 
some dear friends, where he can laugh and 
talk and forget his many cares for a short 
time. But he enjoys nothing better than 
a romp with children, for he loves these 
little ones very dearly. 

In a town not far away from his home, 
a new park was given by a certain man 
in memory of his child. Mr. Burbank 
was asked to speak on the day when the 
park was given. These are some of the 
words he used: 

“ I love sunshine, the blue sky, trees, 
flowers, mountains, green meadows, sunny 
brooks, the ocean when its waves softly 
ripple along the sandy beach, or when 
pounding the rocky cliffs with its thunder 
and roar, the birds of the field, waterfalls, 
the rainbow, the dawn, the noonday, and 
the evening sunset, — but children above 
them all. Trees, plants, flowers, are always 
educators in the right direction; they always 
make us happier and better, and, if well 
grown, they speak of loving care and re¬ 
spond to it as far as is in their power; but 




THE FLOWER - MAGICIAN 33 


in all this world there is nothing so appre¬ 
ciative as children, — these sensitive, quiv¬ 
ering creatures of sunshine, smiles, showers 
and tears.” 

With all his work and many cares, Mr. 
Burbank never forgets his dear old mother, 
now nearly one hundred years old. No 
day is begun without a loving “ good 
morning ” to her. No evening comes to 
an end without a tender good night kiss. 
Always, through his busiest hours, he is 
thinking and planning for this mother’s 
comfort. 

The whole world is richer because of 
this great, good man, Luther Burbank. 



II 

THE MAGICIAN OF TOUCH 

Will you try a little experiment? Then 
close your eyes tightly, and seal your ears 
so that you cannot hear any of the sounds 
around you. You will now find yourself 
in the world in which Helen Keller lives 
all the time. 

It seems a dreary and lonely world to 
you, does it not? Yet to this wonderful 
young woman it is beautiful and full of 
interest. Though she lives in the midst 
of silence and darkness, she is happy and 
cheerful, and ever able to enjoy the funny 
side of whatever takes place. She is a 
true wonder-worker, for she has done so 
much with the sense of touch that it has 
astonished every one who knows her. 

She has worked earnestly and patiently 
for others who are deaf and blind, giving 


* 


MAGICIAN OF TOUCH 


35 


them courage to study and so make them¬ 
selves useful. She has also written books 
filled with beautiful thoughts, which are 
helping thousands of people to-day who are 
not shut out like herself from the world of 
sight and hearing. 

In the year 1880 Helen Keller was born 
in a vine-covered cottage in Tuscumbia, 
a small town in Alabama. The baby was 
lulled to sleep by the sweet songs of robins 
and mocking-birds. The soft southern 
breezes fanned her cheeks, and her eyes, 
which at first were as bright and clear as 
those of other children, were often busy 
watching the humming-birds and the bees 
as they flitted in and out among the vines 
which climbed over the walls of the little 
cottage. 

Everything the baby looked upon filled 
her with interest. She tried to copy what¬ 
ever she saw others doing. When she was 
only six months old she began to talk. 
“ How d’ye,” she would say, in true south¬ 
ern fashion. 

On her first birthday she took her first 



36 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


steps alone, trying to reach the shadows 
of the leaves as they danced on the floor 
in the sunlight. Then, in the month of 
February after her first happy year ended, 
came a dreadful sickness. It seemed as 
though the little Helen could not live 
through it. But suddenly the illness left 
her, taking with it all sight from the bright 
eyes, and hearing from the ears that once 
had been so quick to catch every sound. 
How strange this dark and silent world 
must have seemed to the child! As she 
grew stronger she still wished to spend 
most of her time in her mother’s lap, as 
she had done when she lay weak and sick. 

She could not see this mother’s tender 
face, it is true. She could not hear the 
sweet voice any longer. But she felt the 
love in her heart, which was the greatest 
of all helps in getting used to her new life. 

Of course she soon forgot the words 
that she had learned to speak, and when she 
went from place to place she had to grope 
her way, often forgetting in what direction 
she should turn. 



MAGICIAN OF TOUCH 


37 


She soon learned to make signs to show 
what she wished. For “ yes ” she nodded 
her head. For “ no ” she shook it. If she 
were hungry she would pretend that she 
was cutting bread and spreading it with 
butter. She shivered at the idea of being 
cold. In a short time she had forgotten 
all she had ever known with the help of her 
eyes and ears. 

By and by she discovered that other 
people were different from her. They 
could make each other understand without 
signs. They had only to move their lips 
to do this. The poor child moved her lips, 
too. But she could not make her friends 
understand her wishes. She became very 
angry. She would kick and scream. It 
was the only way she had of showing how 
bad she felt. 

Even in the queer, dark world in which 
she now lived, she had many pleasures. 
She had a pet dog named Belle, which 
followed her wherever she went, and a little 
colored girl for a playmate. This child’s 
name was Martha Washington. She was 



38 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


very fond of Helen and did whatever she 
wished. The two children spent much time 
in the kitchen with the cook, who was 
Martha’s mother. They helped grind the 
coffee and make the ice cream. They 
kneaded balls of dough and scraped out 
the dish in which cake had been made. 
They fed the hens and turkeys, and hunted 
for the eggs which the guinea fowls laid 
in the tall grass. 

This last was the best sport of all. If, 
in their search, they found a nest of eggs, it 
was always Helen who brought them home. 
For was she not older and bigger? Martha, 
she felt, might drop the precious load and 
break the eggs. 

Whenever Helen wished to go on an egg- 
hunt, she made Martha understand by a 
certain sign. She would double up her 
hands and place them on the ground. 
Then Martha knew she was thinking of 
the eggs to be found in the grass, and away 
the two children would go on the search. 

If Martha knew the meaning of signs, 
why did not Belle, the dog? Helen tried 



MAGICIAN OF TOUCH 


39 


again and again to make Belle understand 
her, but she always failed, and this made 
her quite angry. 

As Helen grew older, she tried harder and 
harder to show by signs what she was 
thinking of. But she often could not do 
this — indeed, there were so few signs! 
It’ troubled her very much, and she would 
burst into tears and creep into her mother’s 
arms for comfort. 

Every year she grew more unhappy and 
her parents were greatly troubled. In 
the course of time there came a baby sister 
into the home, and Helen was very jealous 
of her. Before this her mother always 
found time to hold and caress her, but now 
it was quite different. This new baby was 
in her mother’s lap nearly all of the time, 
and Helen had to be put to one side. 

Her parents wondered what could be 
done. They had heard of another child, 
named Laura Bridgman, who was blind 
and deaf like Helen. They learned that 
a good physician in Boston, Dr. Howe, 
had found a way by which such children 



40 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


could learn. He had taught Laura Bridg¬ 
man and made her a happy, useful woman. 
But Dr. Howe was now dead, and they 
feared there was no one living who could 
do what he had done. 

When Helen was six years old, her father 
heard of a great physician in Baltimore 
who had helped many blind people to see. 
Perhaps he could do something for Helen’s 
eyes. Not long afterwards the little girl 
went with her father to Baltimore. Dr. 
Chisholm, for that was the physician’s 
name, examined the blind girl’s eyes, but 
said that he could not help them to see. 

“ She can be educated, however,” he 
said, and advised Mr. and Mrs. Keller to 
go to Washington and visit Dr. Graham 
Bell. He could tell them what was being 
done in the schools for blind and deaf 
children. 

So to Washington they went. Helen 
never forgot her first meeting with Dr. 
Bell. He was very kind and gentle, but, 
best of all, he understood the signs she 
made. He took her on his lap and gave 



MAGICIAN OF TOUCH 


41 


her his watch to examine. He seemed like 
an old friend at once. He told Helen’s 
parents of a school for blind children in 
Boston. Dr. Anagnos was the director. 

“ Write to him at once and ask him if 
he has a teacher who is able to take charge of 
your little girl,” Dr. Bell advised Mr. Keller. 

The letter was written and soon came 
the answer that there was such a teacher. 
This happened in the summer of Helen’s 
sixth year. In the month of March of the 
next year, the teacher, Miss Anne Sullivan, 
left her northern home and traveled south 
to take charge of her new pupil. 

As she drew near the house, Helen stood 
on the porch waiting for her coming. 
Something new and wonderful was going 
to happen; the little blind deaf-mute felt 
this strongly. But what could it be? 
Was light to come to her who lived in such 
darkness? 

Yes, but what kind of light and what 
manner of happiness, she could not guess. 
And now strange footsteps came up the 
walk. Helen could not hear them, but she 



42 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


felt them as they touched the ground and 
sent waves of motion towards her. She 
held out her hand, and the young girl, 
who was to be her dearest friend and helper 
in the future, reached out and clasped the 
blind child in her loving arms. 

The next morning she gave Helen a doll. 
The children at the School for the Blind 
in Boston had sent it to her. Laura Bridg¬ 
man had dressed it. After Helen had played 
with the doll for a while, Miss Sullivan 
took her hand and spelled into it the word 
d-o-1-1. It may be that you already know 
the deaf and dumb alphabet and would 
have known the word. But Helen did not 
understand Miss Sullivan. She thought 
the young girl was trying to teach her a 
new kind of play, and she tried to imitate 
it. She did not dream that those motions 
of the fingers had made a word which stood 
for the doll she had been holding in her arms. 

After this Miss Sullivan taught Helen 
to make words which stood for different 
objects. But the child still thought she 
was learning some new game. Several 



MAGICIAN OF TOUCH 


43 


days afterwards Helen went with her teacher 
to the well-house. When they reached it, 
some one was there drawing water. Miss 
Sullivan took one of Helen’s hands and 
placed it under the spout. On the other 
she spelled the word w-a-t-e-r, over and 
over again. 

All at once the child understood. She 
had learned the sign for water! She knew 
now what her teacher had been trying to 
do before. It was not a game she had been 
playing with her. She had been using a 
language of signs, and through this the 
child, who had been shut away from others 
in darkness, was to get light — the light 
of knowledge. 

How excited and delighted Helen was 
now! She wished to learn this sign lan¬ 
guage as quickly as possible. She begged 
in her dumb way for more and more words. 
Her mind was on fire to take in all her 
teacher could give her. When she lay 
down to sleep that night, she had already 
mastered a large number of words, and she 
was very happy. 



44 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


Afterwards she wrote that those words 
“ Were to make the world blossom like 
Aaron’s rod, with flowers.” Every day 
after this Helen was taught some fresh 
lesson about the wonderful world around 
her. The birds, and how they lived; the 
creatures of the forest; the work of the 
sun and the rain on the earth, — these 
lessons and more the child learned very 
quickly and with the greatest delight. 

But there soon came a time when Helen 
must find out the meaning of words which 
had nothing to do with what she could 
understand with the help of the three 
senses she possessed. 

What was it to love, she wondered, 
when her teacher spoke into her hand, 
“ I love you.” Was it the sweetness of 
the flowers or the warmth of the sun? she 
asked. Surely, if love was a very beauti¬ 
ful thing, it could not be more so than these. 
But Miss Sullivan said, no, love was not 
these at all. But how could she make the 
child get the meaning of the word? 

One day soon afterwards Helen was 



MAGICIAN OF TOUCH 


45 


stringing beads, trying to arrange them in 
groups according to their size. She kept 
making mistakes, but Miss Sullivan was 
very patient with her. At last the child 
herself noticed the mistakes. She stopped 
and tried to think what she should do. 
Miss Sullivan watched her. Suddenly she 
touched Helen’s forehead and at the same 
time spelled out the word “ think ” on her 
hand. 

Helen knew at once that the word told 
of what her mind was doing. She had 
gotten hold of an abstract idea, as we say, 
for the first time. After this she sat still. 
She had discovered what it was to think. 
Perhaps now she could learn what it was 
to love. 

It had been cloudy all day, but at this 
moment the sun burst out in all its glory. 
She felt its warmth, and again she asked, 
“ Is this not love? ” 

“ No,” said her teacher, but she went on 
to explain how glad the flowers must be to 
have refreshing rain, although they could 
not touch the clouds that gave it. In the 



46 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


same way, though Helen could not touch 
love, yet she could feel the sweetness and 
happiness that it brought. 

At last Helen understood. And now her 
own heart could reach out to the hearts 
of others and touch them, although it 
could not be in the same way that her hands 
touched the grass and flowers. 

Can you guess what was the next step 
which Helen was to take? She could now 
talk with her friends by means of the won¬ 
derful sign language, and she could get 
their thoughts in the same way. She had 
yet to learn to read. Miss Sullivan now 
began to give the child slips of cardboard 
on which words were stamped in raised 
letters. She also gave her a frame in which 
these words might be arranged in sentences. 

Helen would find the words which stood 
for different objects in the room, and then 
she would invent short sentences about 
them and set these up in the frame. She 
thought it was a delightful game, and she 
would play it for hours without getting 
tired. 



MAGICIAN OF TOUCH 


47 


After this it was an easy matter to learn 
to read books. But they were not like 
those from which we read. They had been 
made especially for blind people. The 
letters, which do not look at all like 
the ones we know, are made of straight 
lines, and they are raised above the 
page as much as the thickness of a thumb 
nail. 

Books for the blind are heavy and thick, 
because the pages cannot fit closely to¬ 
gether. You would be interested .to watch 
a blind person reading, as the fingers move 
across the page, touching one word after 
another very rapidly. You could truly 
say of such a person that he is getting his 
lessons on his fingers’ ends. 

Most of Helen’s studying was done out 
of doors in the soft, delicious, southern 
air. She wrote afterwards that the lessons 
she learned there were filled with the breath 
of the woods, where she sat most of the 
time. She drew in the odor of pine-needles 
and of wild grapes. She could not hear 
the frogs croaking or the noisy singing of 



48 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


the katydids, but she sometimes held these 
creatures in her hands, and when they had 
become at home there and began once more 
to talk in their own queer ways, she would 
touch them ever so lightly and take joy 
in feeling what they were doing. 

There was so much to enjoy through 
touching. It was a delight to the child 
to move her fingers over the petals of a 
rose or a lily. Indeed, she has since told 
us that she believes that the wonderful 
sense of touch can give us more pleasure 
than what we gain through our sight. 
It seems strange to us, however, who use 
our eyes so constantly and think little of 
what our hands can do for us. 

When Helen was eight years old she went 
to Boston and visited the children at the 
Perkins Institution for the Blind. It was the 
first time the child had met any one who, 
like herself, could not see. Her new friends 
read books with their fingers just as she 
did. They talked with her in the sign 
language, which she knew. They played 
games with her and were full of love and 



MAGICIAN OF TOUCH 


49 


brightness. They very soon became like 
old friends. 

In the Blind Institute there was a li¬ 
brary in which all the books were printed 
in raised type. It was a most delightful 
place for Helen, since she had known only 
a few such books before. She was very 
happy when she was allowed to go into this 
library and read as much as she liked. 

There were older people in Boston, as 
well as the little children, whom Helen met 
and learned to love at this time, and who 
became her firm friends. During this visit 
to the North, Helen went to the seashore 
and for the first time went bathing in the 
ocean. The whole visit was filled with 
pleasure. Helen could now talk easily 
with others through the sign language of 
the fingers. 

But she had not learned to speak, since 
she was deaf to all the sounds around her. 
She was now doing so well in other things 
that her kind, faithful teacher felt that her 
pupil could learn even this difficult thing. 

How was it to be done? She could get 



50 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


help by touching the throats and lips of 
others when they were talking. This was 
was not enough, however. She must learn 
to make her voice rise and fall to help in 
expressing whatever she felt. It was slow 
work, and again and again it seemed as 
though she could not succeed. But both 
she and her teacher were very patient. 
They would not give up, and at last the 
time came when Helen could speak long 
sentences which others could easily under¬ 
stand. 

She was not satisfied yet. She was filled 
with a longing to go to college, like other 
girls who could see and hear. At first her 
friends thought that this would be im¬ 
possible. Most of the books which she 
must study had never been printed in 
raised type, for no other person like her¬ 
self had ever dreamed of doing what she 
now wished to accomplish. It would cost 
a great deal of money to have such books 
made. Besides this, there would be many 
lectures to be heard, and Helen’s ears 
could not help her. 



MAGICIAN OF TOUCH 


51 


We are told that where there is a will, 
there is a way. This was so in Helen’s case, 
at any rate. For people who had plenty of 
money and who heard of her wish, had the 
books which she would need printed for her. 
As for the lectures, some one who heard 
could sit beside her and talk the sentences 
into her hand. So it came to pass that 
Helen prepared for college, and when she 
was nineteen years old, began her life at 
Radcliffe, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

The work, of course, was far harder for 
her than for the other young women in her 
class; but brave and patient as ever, she 
kept on until she had finished her course 
and become a college graduate. In the 
meantime she had learned to use a type¬ 
writer so that she could write out her lessons 
with its help. 

Helen’s college days are now over, yet 
she is still a very busy woman. She reads 
and studies a great deal, and she writes out 
the beautiful thoughts that enter her mind, 
so that others who may never know her 
can be helped by them. 




52 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


And always this wonderful young woman, 
who lives in a world of her own, where 
beautiful colors and sweet sounds cannot 
enter, is not only cheerful and patient and 
brave, but ready to see the amusing side 
of whatever is taking place. 

Helen’s home is still with Miss Sullivan, 
who is now happily married. This lady 
has herself done a wonderful work, the like 
of which has never been done by any one 
else. By her own patience, her constant 
care and tender love, by always taking 
the right moment to teach Helen something 
new, she made the hardest lessons delight¬ 
ful. She has made a life helpful and beauti¬ 
ful that would otherwise have been one of 
pain and suffering, not only to the girl her¬ 
self, but to those around her. 

Mark Twain once declared that the two 
most interesting people of the last one 
hundred years are Helen Keller and the Em¬ 
peror Napoleon Buonaparte. When others 
shut out from sight and hearing would have 
said: “ I can go no farther,” she would 
never let herself think of failure, but has 




Helen Keller in conversation with a little friend. Page 52 








MAGICIAN OF TOUCH 


53 


boldly and bravely pushed on. What more 
she will yet do we can only guess, for she 
is still young and strong and full of hope. 

Napoleon was a wonder-worker on the 
battle-field, as we know. He marched from 
one country to another, conquering wher¬ 
ever he went. 

But Helen Keller — what has she done to 
be ranked beside the great general? She 
has worked wonders with herself in training 
her own mind and in making herself the 
master of one field of learning after another. 




Ill 


THE MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 

This is the story of a man who has 
helped and given joy to many boys and 
girls. 

It was in 1866 , just after the great Civil 
War had ended in this country, that a baby 
boy was born on a quiet farm in western 
New York. The child’s mother gave him 
the name of William. 

The baby’s bright blue eyes looked out 
on rolling hills and green meadows. Wav¬ 
ing tree-tops nodded to him in welcome, 
and wild flowers of many colors invited 
his tiny fingers to pick them for his delight. 
The birds sang their sweetest songs to 
wake him in the morning, and he was lulled 
to sleep in the warm summer evenings by 
a chorus of crickets chirping in the meadows 
near by. 

There were so many pleasures in that 


MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 55 


country home, it is little wonder that as 
the baby grew into a lively boy, he liked 
the free outdoor life better than the close 
air of the schoolroom. There was so much 
to do and see. There were butterflies to 
chase as they skimmed over the meadows. 
There were birds’ nests to be discovered 
among the branches of the trees. There 
were stores of honey which the bees had 
hidden from all but the most watchful 
eyes. There were berries and apples to 
be picked, and new pets to be trained. 

The boy had few playmates, but he did 
not miss them greatly, although he grieved 
that he was an only child. If only there 
were a brother or sister in his home! 
Still, he had what many other children 
did not have — a great-grandmother, who 
was always ready to tell him stories of 
the time when much of this country was 
a wilderness, and Indians roamed over the 
very hills where he now played in safety. 
Then, too, she repeated tale after tale 
of the war that was ending when she was 
born, more than ninety years before, — 



56 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


the war of the Revolution. The child who 
listened to these tales heard of brave 
soldiers and of the daring deeds they did 
to save this country. 

There was another person besides the 
great-grandmother who kept the boy from 
being lonely; this was his mother who was 
his best and closest chum. To her he could 
tell all his troubles; with her he could share 
all his pleasures. When he was still a tiny 
little fellow, she taught him to read. There 
was no town library, but in the home there 
were a few of the best books in the world. 
First of all, there was the family Bible, 
from which the boy learned chapter after 
chapter “ by heart.” Then there were the 
plays of Shakespeare, which he read before 
he was eight years old. There was Pilgrim's 
Progress , of which he was very fond. 
There was also a bound copy of Harper's 
Weekly . In this book William read story 
after story of the Civil War. These, as 
well as the stories which the great-grand¬ 
mother told him, gave the boy a great love 
for his country. 



MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 57 


“ When I grow up I will go to West 
Point and learn to be a soldier/’ he thought. 
“ I will yet be the commander of the United 
States army.” 

There was one thing which the young 
William George liked to read better than 
anything else. It was the “ Dear old 
Youth's Companion ,” as he calls it to this 
day. There he found the stories of Indian 
Pete and the Lost Trail, in which the people 
seemed so real that he felt as if he knew 
them. He could never forget them, — of 
that he was quite sure. 

It is no wonder that after reading and 
hearing so many stories of war the boy 
spent a good deal of his time playing 
soldier. He whittled make-believe guns, 
bowie knives and revolvers out of wood. 
With these he would arm himself and go 
forth to imaginary battles. No doubt he 
thought he looked very fierce and terrible 
as he tore through the woods and fields, 
looking for possible enemies. An Indian 
in war paint and feathers might be hidden 
away behind that tree trunk or in yonder 



58 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


clump of bushes, and he must take the 
enemy by surprise. 

When this young soldier was not busy 
fighting imaginary battles, he was busy 
dreaming dreams, and making plans for 
his boy friends when they should grow up. 
He pictured one as rear admiral in com¬ 
mand of terrible ships of war. Another 
was to be President of the United States, 
and still another was to be a general. 
He himself, you remember, was to be the 
commander of the army. As it happened, 
none of these dreams came true, but they 
gave the boy much pleasure at the time. 

There was a little country school in the 
village, and here William was allowed to 
study what he enjoyed best. He dis¬ 
liked arithmetic and so spent but little 
time on it, but he was never tired of geogra¬ 
phy and history. The world was not big 
enough to suit him, for he soon came to 
know all the places on the map and wished 
for more. So he set to work and made new 
maps for himself, putting in imaginary 
countries, mountains, rivers and lakes. 



MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 59 


Before he got through with this geography 
of his own, he planned wars between the 
countries, and even drew pictures of the 
generals who were to take part in them. 
It was exciting work to the boy and as 
interesting as any outdoor sport. 

This free and happy life came to an end 
when William was fourteen years old. 
Then he left behind him the beautiful 
green fields of the country. The singing of 
the birds, the mooing of the cows, and the 
peep of the little chickens greeted his 
ears no longer, for his home was changed 
to the great and busy city of New York. 
There were many new sights and sounds to 
interest him, but for a long time he could 
not get used to them. He felt choked and 
cramped, and longed to be back among 
the hills and fields. At last, however, this 
feeling wore away, and the city became so 
interesting that he hardly thought of the 
old, free days. 

When he was still quite young he went 
into business, but even then he had the old 
love of fighting which he showed in his 



60 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


attacks on imaginary Indians when a small 
boy. A soldier’s life must be full of de¬ 
light, he still thought. To camp out of 
doors and eat dinner before a fire of blazing 
logs, to sleep on the ground wrapped in a 
big blanket, to march to the music of 
drum and fife, to make sudden sallies and to 
take the enemy by surprise, — what joy and 
excitement these must bring. 

But there was no war going on at this 
time, so the young man contented himself 
with joining a regiment of the New York 
National Guard. The uniform which he 
wore and the drill with his company made 
him feel as though he were really a soldier, 
and gave him almost as much pleasure^ as 
if he were taking part in a war. 

Something else began to interest William 
George at this time. He took long walks 
about the city; but, instead of going through 
the most beautiful parts, where there were 
grand houses and lovely parks, he chose 
what are called the “ slums.” There was 
nothing beautiful to see there, as these 
slums are the home of the poor people, 




MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 61 


who are crowded together in small tene¬ 
ments. Sometimes Mr. George knew of a 
whole family living together in one room, 
and there were many such families in a 
single, old, dingy house. The streets of 
the slums were narrow and dirty. There 
were neither trees nor grass plots there, no 
chance to see the sunset, no singing of 
birds, no pretty gardens. 

Why was it that Mr. George liked to walk 
through the slums? It was because there 
were many boys and girls playing together 
in the dirty, narrow streets, and he liked 
to watch them and talk with them. He felt 
sorry for them because they knew nothing 
about the beautiful country where he had 
lived when a child. Some of them had 
never visited a park or seen a real flower 
garden. They had not had the pleasure 
of picking apples or gathering nuts. They 
had never watched birds building nests in 
the springtime; they had never trapped 
muskrats or chased woodchucks out of 
their holes. 

These children of the slums had their 




62 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


own sports, however. They made bonfires 
in vacant lots and danced around the flames 
like wild imps. They played at marbles 
on the sidewalks. They had great fun pre¬ 
tending that the “ cops,” as they called 
the policemen, were after them, and they 
must hide to keep from being caught. 

They used many strange words when they 
talked, words which showed the rough way 
in which they were growing up. Many 
a time, when the boys got angry with each 
other, a fight took place, which ended in 
black eyes and swollen lips. Mr. George 
got more and more interested in these slum 
children. He soon made them understand 
that he was their friend. He spent more 
and more time with them. He often left 
his business and stayed for hours in narrow 
alleys and dark streets, watching dirty- 
faced but bright-eyed boys at their play, 
or talking with them about their school 
and the sports they liked best. He got 
some of these boys to form themselves into 
clubs. He told them about the good times 
they could have at the mission houses, 



MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 63 


and got them to visit these places. He 
formed baseball clubs. Best of all, perhaps, 
he got some of the roughest and wildest 
boys to form bands for keeping good order 
and obeying the laws. 

All these things helped to keep them busy. 
“ When they are busy,” thought Mr. 
George, “ they will not get into trouble.” 

He had liked the ways of a soldier so 
much himself that he made the boys like 
them, too. Before this, many of them had 
thought it was fun to break the laws. 
Now they saw how much more pleasure it 
was to keep them. Before they knew this 
kind friend, they thought a boy who was 
ready to obey was a “ sissy.” Now they 
found out that the first thing a soldier 
has to learn is to obey, and obey promptly; 
what was right for a soldier must be right 
for others, too. 

Many other things Mr. George told 
the children of the slums, and they were 
so fond of him by this time, that they 
gladly listened. They took him to their 
homes and he got acquainted with their 



64 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


sisters. He found the girls as bright and 
interesting as their brothers. 

The long, hot summer came around, and 
Mr. George began to think of the way in 
which he should spend his vacation. He 
decided to go to his old home in the country, 
as he always did, but he had not thought 
yet what he should do while he was there. 

One day he was sitting in his office con¬ 
sidering this question when he happened 
to look down at a newspaper which lay 
upon his desk. There, on the page in front 
of him, was the story of a little city boy, — 
a child of the slums. It told how this 
boy was leaning against the iron chain 
which shut off the velvety grass in a small 
park in the city. How cool and pleasant 
the grass looked! It must be so much nicer 
than the gravel walk before it, yet people 
were not allowed to step there. The 
country was not like this, thought the boy. 
He had been there once in his life, — it 
was long ago, when he was much smaller 
than now, but it was beautiful, and it 
was free. 



MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 65 


He stood looking at the little plot of 
green, and taking long sniffs of the fresh 
air, when all at once his eyes spied some¬ 
thing he had not noticed at first. It was 
a tiny spot of golden yellow, over there in 
the midst of the grass. It must be a flower 
such as.he had seen growing wild, during 
that short but wonderful visit of his to the 
country. He stood there watching it and 
longing for it with all his might. He turned 
to look at the people sitting on the benches 
near by. Would they see him if he made a 
dash over the forbidden grass and picked 
that beautiful flower? Would they raise a 
cry to call a policeman? 

Again the boy’s eyes turned to the spot 
of gold which he longed to have for his 
very own. A whole hour went by. Then 
at last the child became brave with longing. 
He sprang over the iron chain. Straight 
toward the yellow spot he made his way, 
with bright eyes and fingers stretched out 
to seize his prize. 

Ah! he bent down beside it. But then 
he drew his hand slowly away, with eyes 



66 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


no longer shining. It was not what he 
thought, a beautiful yellow flower spread¬ 
ing out its petals in the sunlight. It was 
only a bit of orange peel. 

It seemed as though this story had been 
sent to Mr. George, for it set him to think¬ 
ing. He knew boys just like the one told 
of in the paper — city boys, who longed 
for the green grass and the flowers and the 
birds of the country. He would look up 
those very boys; they should share his 
vacation with him. 

No time must be lost, for there was much 
to be done before the party could be made 
ready. In the first place, there were the 
car-fares. Money must be raised to take 
all these boys to the country and bring 
them back again. And now he remembered 
that there was a newspaper, the New York 
Tribune , which would help him in this 
matter. It raised funds for sending poor 
children on summer vacations. Mr. George 
went at once to the gentleman who had 
charge of these funds. He asked for rail¬ 
road tickets for his boys. 




MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 67 


“ I will furnish the tickets if you can get 
farmers who will be willing to take care of 
the children when you get them into the 
country,” was the reply. 

“ That will be easy enough,” said Mr. 
George, and he asked for fifty tickets. 

Then he went away and made his plans. 
There should be forty boys and ten girls 
in the party. They should be divided up 
among Mr. George’s relations and friends 
in his country home. He felt sure that 
they would gladly furnish beds and food 
for the children. He himself would look 
after the boys and keep them amused. 
Every morning after an early breakfast 
he would gather them all together. They 
could play baseball, go swimming, and hunt 
woodchucks. There were many other things 
which would be new to these city children 
and would give them such delight that it 
would leave them no time to think of 
mischief. 

The girls would be left to the farmers’ 
wives, for they could be amused very 
easily. 



68 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


The next thing was to invite the children 
whom he had selected. Mr. George sent 
a card to each one, inviting them to be 
ready for the start in two weeks from that 
day. 

Strange as it may seem, this kind-hearted 
man had not written one word about his 
plans to his friends in the country. He 
believed that they would be only too glad 
to give a vacation-home to the children 
of the slums. 

At last, however, he did write and when 
he received an answer he was greatly disap¬ 
pointed. His friends were really frightened 
at the idea of what he proposed. They 
believed that the place would be turned 
upside down. Forty rough, wild boys 
all coming at once! It was terrible to think 
of. Only last summer they had had some 
of the poor children from the city. The 
girls had behaved very well, but the boys 
gave all sorts of trouble. They let the pigs 
out of their pens; they went to the hen¬ 
houses and took the eggs. Nothing was 
safe from their mischievous hands. Oh, 



MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 69 


no! the people could not admit such boys 
into their homes again, though they were 
willing to have the girls. 

Mr. George felt very bad at this news. 
He had not dreamed that his friends would 
not be glad to help him; besides, he could 
not think how to carry out his plan with¬ 
out their help. 

But now a letter came from a cousin 
who had not written with the others. 
This man offered the use of an old house 
for the children. No one was living in it, 
and he had been thinking of tearing it 
down. It was so old that he was not 
afraid of the boys hurting it in any way. 

This would be even better than his first 
plan, Mr. George thought. The boys 
could be with him all the time, and when 
evening came and play was over for the 
day, he could gather them around him and 
tell them stories. 

Of course, there must be plenty of food 
for these children, because country air 
makes every one hungry. Mr. George’s 
friends had already offered to furnish this. 



70 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


They had only refused to take the boys into 
their homes. The food could be brought 
to the building where the boys were to 
camp out and it would be like a long two 
weeks’ picnic. Mr. George was satisfied. 

The next days passed quickly, and when 
the time came for leaving, fifty happy 
children hustled aboard the train and bade 
good-by to the hot, dusty city, for two 
whole weeks. 

What weeks they were, too! There were 
three big meals a day of all the good things 
the country can furnish, tramps through 
the woods, swims in the clear, cool streams, 
ball games in the fields, the picking of 
big bouquets of wild flowers; and then in 
the evening all gathered together to sing 
and do “ stunts.” The village people 
liked to visit the happy young folks at 
this time, to listen to the songs and look 
on at the wonderful feats the boys per¬ 
formed. It was as good as a circus. And 
the boys liked to see a crowd of onlookers, 
too. They vied with each other all the 
harder. 



.MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 71 


Of course, the children were not perfect 
and they did many things during these 
two weeks to bother the good farmers and 
their wives. But the grown-ups were 
kind and forgiving, and when the vacation 
was over, they loaded the visitors with fruits 
and vegetables and second-hand clothes 
to carry back to the city with them. Best 
of all, there were new pets to take home — 
dogs, cats and soft-eyed bunnies. The boys 
and girls were both proud and happy. 
Their kind friend, Mr. George, was happy, 
too. He had enjoyed the vacation as much 
as the children, and he felt sure that another 
year would be still better, because many 
people had heard of his work and had 
offered to help him. 

When the next summer came Mr. George 
was busy planning for the vacation. One 
hundred and twenty-five boys and girls 
should go to Freeville for two weeks, and 
after that there should be one hundred and 
twenty-five more for another two weeks. 
He could keep them in order, he felt sure. 
The drill he had had in the New York 



72 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


regiment had taught him the best ways to 
manage them. Then, too, he loved them 
and they trusted him. Yes, he could cer¬ 
tainly take charge of so many. 

The old house which had been used as 
a camp the last summer would not be large 
enough to hold all of the children. Some 
kind city friends, however, gave Mr. George 
money enough to buy a tent. This, with 
two small cottages which were empty, 
would furnish enough room for sleeping. 
Of course, the children would spend all of 
the daytime out of doors. 

Pretty tough boys those were that went 
to Freeville that summer, — boys who had 
grown up in the city streets, doing much 
as they pleased; who fought with each 
other and used bad language, who were 
sly and often cruel. But Mr. George had 
chosen them for that very reason. They 
needed to learn better and he wished to 
take this chance to teach them. He was 
kind, but he was firm, too, and he understood 
and managed them so well, that people 
for miles around began to wonder. 



MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 73 


They said, “ Such a man as this must 
be helped, for he is doing a great work. 
We must do what we can.” 

So it was that when another summer 
came, Mr. George took a still larger number 
of boys and girls to Freeville. There were 
more tents now, and the place where the 
children lived was a big and lively camp. 
It was a village in itself. Hundreds of 
visitors came to see it, and went away to 
tell others of this wonderful vacation-home 
for poor children. 

And now, while every one was praising 
Mr. George and his work, he himself was 
beginning to be troubled. Something was 
wrong. What was it? The children were 
happy, and had day after day of pleasure. 
They had all sorts of good things to eat 
while they were there, and when they 
went away, they were loaded with pres¬ 
ents of fruit, vegetables and clothing, 
which were sent by kind people all over the 
State. 

What could be the trouble? All at once 
Mr. George said to himself: “ I know what 



74 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


it is. The boys and girls have begun to 
think that they have a right to receive 
all of these things. They get a great deal 
without doing anything to earn it. That 
is the way to make paupers.” 

Indeed, a single day did not pass with¬ 
out some child going to Mr. George and 
asking about these presents. Would he get 
some to take back with him to the city? 
But the vacation ended and Mr. George 
had not decided what to do. 

Another summer came, and another party 
was taken to Freeville. Everything went 
on as usual, except that the children grew 
more and more eager as to what presents 
they might receive. One day a crowd of 
children gathered around Mr. George to 
ask if they were “ goin’ to get things ” 
when they went home. 

He turned suddenly upon them and asked 
what right they had to expect so much. 
Was not the vacation with all the good 
food and fun enough? Why did they ask 
for more? A small girl with angry black 
eyes was the first to speak. 



MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 75 


“ Mr. George, what do yer t’ink we’se 
here fer, enyway? ” she exclaimed. 

That was enough for this good man. 
Either the vacation parties should come to 
an end, or he must make some new plan. 
He was quite sure now that he was not 
doing the best thing possible for these 
children. 

All through the next winter he was busy 
thinking, and at last his plan was made. 
The children must be made to do some 
work this year, and not allowed to play 
all of the time. Instead of buying croquet 
sets, the money should be spent for picks 
and shovels. 

“ What a foolish idea,” thought the 
friend who had given the money for the 
croquet sets. Children couldn’t be amused 
with tools, while they were sure to be fond 
of croquet. Still, if Mr. George thought 
it best to make them work, he was welcome 
to try it. 

When the vacation party of two hundred 
children reached Freeville, one dozen picks 
and one dozen shovels were ready and wait- 



76 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


ing for them. The first morning when the 
children were gathered around the dining 
table Mr. George made a little speech. 
He told them that if they wished to have 
as much fun as possible, they should do 
some work. There was a chance to have it. 
They could help to make a fine road in 
front of one of the cottages. New picks 
and shovels were ready and waiting to be 
used. How many would like to start in on 
the work? 

Much to Mr. George’s delight, not only 
all the boys but even many of the girls 
declared they were ready. The picks and 
shovels were brought out, — but there 
were only twenty-four to be divided among 
this big, eager crowd. The boys were 
already fighting for them. 

This would never do, so Mr. George 
ordered the children to form into twelve 
lines. The boy at the head of each line 
was given a pick and shovel, and told that 
he could use them for five minutes. Then 
he must hand over the tools to the boy next 
to him, and take his place at the end of the 



MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 77 


line. In this way every one would have a 
chance. 

The plan worked very well, but the next 
day fewer children were anxious to work. 
On the third day there were still fewer, 
while alas! on the fourth day not one boy 
offered to touch the tools. The newness had 
worn off! 

Mr. George began to think very hard. 
How happy the boys had seemed while 
they were busy! They were not asking 
then if they should have “ things to take 
home with them.” Surely work was the 
best thing for them. But how could he 
make them wish to do it? He did not know. 

Then came the fifth day and with it a 
big box of second-hand clothing. It stood 
on the cottage porch, and all the children 
were gathered around it in great excite¬ 
ment. Somehow or other they had guessed 
what was in that box, and every one was 
eager to have a share of what it held. 
Some of the boys even hurt the clothes 
they were wearing so that they could get 


new ones. 



78 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


Mr. George watched them for a while. 
He was half angry, half amused. Then he 
opened the box. Suit after suit lay there 
before him. They were nearly as good as 
new. 

But the children did not deserve them. 
Should he send them back to the giver? 
No, he would let these young people have 
a chance to earn them. He lifted up a 
fine suit and called out the name of a boy 
whom he thought it would fit. 

A little blue-eyed Irish lad sprang for¬ 
ward and held out his hand, saying: 
“ Tanks, Mr. George, tanks.” 

But Mr. George did not give the suit 
to him. He only asked the boy what he 
thought it was worth. 

“ Dat suit is worth five dollars,” was 
the answer. 

Upon this a crowd of boys shouted that 
it was worth six, — yes, seven, eight dollars. 

“ Well, suppose it is worth only five 
dollars,” Mr. George suggested. Then he 
went on: “ Say, young fellow, how much 
could you earn in a day? ” 



MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 79 


After thinking it over, Mickey, the little 
Irish lad, felt sure that he could earn a 
dollar if he worked fast. 

Then came another question: “ If a 
fellow has to work hard to earn one dollar 
in a day, how many hard days’ work will 
it take to earn five dollars ? ” 

“ Five days; can’t youse figger? ” one 
boy called out, before Mickey had a chance 
to answer. 

Thereupon Mr. George proposed that 
Mickey should take a pick and shovel, and 
beginning the next morning, should work 
hard for five days on the road which the 
boys had already begun. Then the suit 
of clothes should be his. 

The crowd of children began to howl, 
for they were surprised and angry. Make 
them work for second-hand clothes, which 
had been given away every year before! 
They could hardly believe that Mr. George 
meant what he said. 

But when he put the clothes back into 
the box, and nailed down the cover; and 
when he went on to say that not one bit 



80 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


of that clothing should be given away 
except to those who earned it, they began 
to understand. 

Many hard things were said about this 
kind friend, but he had made up his mind 
what he was going to do, and he was not 
going to change. He would wait. A little 
later a bright-eyed, red-headed boy stepped 
up to Mr. George. 

“ I’ll work for them close,” he said. 

Mr. George was much pleased and told 
him that he could start bright and early 
the next morning. But the boy was not 
satisfied; he wished to begin that very 
minute. For five days he worked faith¬ 
fully and alone. Then came the reward. 
The suit of clothes was handed over to him 
and he marched off to the tent with a 
soft whistle of pride and delight. 

The other boys were waiting for him. 
They began to make fun of him, and called 
him a big fool for working so hard. Little 
did he care. He answered that he thought 
more of the clothes because he had “ hus¬ 
tled ” for them, and as he looked around 



MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 81 


among his friends, he reminded them that 
he was the only boy there who had a whole 
suit. 

Then they began to think differently. 
They asked him if the work was hard. 
That fine suit, spread out on the arm of the 
boy who had earned it, made every one else 
long to have one, too. Before many minutes 
passed they decided to earn clothes for 
themselves. If the only way to do this 
was to work, why, they would work. 

Thus it came about that the sun looked 
down upon a very busy place the next 
morning. All the picks and shovels were 
in use, for there were many boys who had 
decided to start out and earn some clothes 
for themselves. There was no time for 
hard or coarse words, and every one 
was happy because he had something to 
do. 

Then came pay-day, when each one 
received the clothing he had earned. 

Never in all their lives had those children 
felt so proud. Never before had they taken 
so much delight in anything as they did 



82 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


now in the suits which were theirs because 
they had worked for them. 

A great step had been taken, yet Mr. 
George’s troubles were not over by any 
means. These boys from the city slums 
had not yet learned to care for the rights 
of other people. They went out into the 
farmers’ orchards and stole the apples, 
making the good men very angry. They 
were told how wrong this was, but that did 
not stop them, so they had to be punished. 

Mr. George got a stout stick and flogged 
those who had done wrong, but even then 
the stealing did not come to an end. Every 
morning there were more boys who had to 
be whipped, and many others stood around 
to see the “ fun.” 

“ This will never do,” thought Mr. 
George. “1 must have some new way of 
settling the trouble. Ah! I have it. I will 
be judge no longer. The children shall 
themselves be the judges.” 

He called out the names of two boys who 
had not been punished as yet, and told 
them to come forward. They must tell 



MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 83 


their own story, and their friends should 
decide how much wrong they had done, and 
how great the punishment should be. The 
two boys were pleased, for they expected 
to “ get off easy.” They were greatly 
mistaken; the other children were glad to be 
chosen for judges and they meant to be fair. 

Each culprit spoke for himself. The 
first one declared that he had not stolen 
any apples, but the others knew that he 
was not speaking the truth, and decided 
at once that he must be soundly whipped. 
The second boy confessed that he had done 
wrong, but he felt so bad and cried so bit¬ 
terly, that the judges were sorry for him. 
He must be punished, they decided. 

“ But please go light on him, Mr. 
George,” they said, and Mr. George was 
quite willing to do as they asked. 

For several days after this the boys 
behaved much better, and few of them 
troubled the farmers by stealing their ap¬ 
ples. Then they began doing wrong again. 
One morning there were a good many to 
be punished. 




84 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


“ They shall not be flogged, however,” 
Mr. George decided. “ Work will be much 
better.” 

So he told one boy that he must pick 
up stones in the meadow for two hours, 
another must pick them up for four hours, 
and so on. He acted wisely. The work 
made the boys think longer about the 
wrong they had done, than a flogging would 
have. They would not repeat it so easily. 
After this only a small number of apples 
were stolen and the farmers had peace. 

In a few days more the vacation came to 
an end and the boys and girls left Freeville 
for their homes in the city. Never had they 
gone away so happy as now. They had 
not only good clothes for themselves, but 
also for their fathers and mothers, brothers 
and sisters whom they had left behind in 
the city; and all these things they had 
earned. Best of all, they had asked Mr. 
George if they might come again next year 
and have a chance to work. 

After they had gone and he was taking 
his own vacation, he kept thinking about 



MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 85 


these young people who were soon going 
to be men and women. They had worked 
for their clothes and were happy because 
of so doing. Why should they not work for 
their food, too? And if so, there must be 
money of some kind with which to pay them. 
Ah, now he had it! He would make “ token 
money ” himself. He would cut cardboard 
of different colors into little squares. Red 
squares would stand for dollars, yellow 
ones for fifty-cent pieces, green ones for 
quarters, and so on. 

Each boy and girl could now buy the 
food which had been earned. The hardest 
workers could, of course, have the most 
dainties. Well did this good friend re¬ 
member a pie which had been sent to the 
camp one day. It was big and fat and 
juicy, but what was one pie among so many? 
He would do the best he could, however. 
He would play that it was a clock and mark 
it off into minutes. So! There were soon 
sixty tiny pieces. Each one was scarcely 
more than a taste. 

Sixty of the best boys and girls were 



86 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


called up and the bits of pie were given out. 
These sixty were pleased, of course. But 
the others scowled, and muttered: “ Dem 
fellers and girls w’at’s gettin’ pie is Mr. 
George’s favorites.” 

Now, if he should carry out his new plan, 
there would be no chance for any one to 
talk in this way. Every boy and girl would 
get just what he or she deserved. Still 
other things came into Mr. George’s plan. 
If there was money, there must be a bank; 
there must be policemen; there must also be 
a court where those who did wrong should 
be tried. And the boys themselves should 
run the bank, make the laws, and see to it 
that these laws were carried out. Why, the 
summer vacation party would become a 
little republic in itself, and the young 
people who ran it would act like the men and 
women of the big republic, America. At 
this thought Mr. George was so excited 
that he shouted, “ I have it — I have it — 
I have it,” and ran to tell his mother all 
about it. 

The tenth of July, 1895 , saw the begin- 



MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 87 


ning of the Junior Republic. That day 
the train from New York left a large com¬ 
pany of boys and girls at the station in 
Freeville, and every one of them was eager 
to take part in the new plan. About twenty 
boys led the procession, whistling with all 
their might. When they arrived at the 
farm, there was nothing very beautiful to 
look at save the country itself. There were 
some old barns, a small house and one 
new building, not much better than a 
shed. But these looked very inviting to 
the boys and girls from the tenements 
of the city slums. 

The next day the young people set to 
work. First of all, the old barn was di¬ 
vided up. One part was made into a court¬ 
house and another was made into a bank. 
There was also a jail, where those who 
broke the laws of the Republic were to 
be shut up. 

The upper part of the new building was 
given over to the girls to sleep in, but the 
lower floor was to be used for business. 
In one room the young carpenters were to 



88 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


work; in another the girls were to learn 
dress-making; in still another, they were 
to cook. Yes, — everything was planned so 
that all who wished, could be busy earning 
money. There was plenty of outdoor work, 
too, for those who liked that best, so a 
large number of the boys started to learn 
how to carry on a farm, and to make 
beautiful gardens. Those boys who were 
allowed to drive the big team of horses 
used for ploughing were very proud, for 
they knew it was because they were the 
most careful workers. 

After supper came the fun. There were 
shows of different kinds in which the 
young people played their parts like real 
actors on the stage. There was a good deal 
of singing, too, and the evenings passed 
very quickly. 

Court was held in the afternoon, when 
the boy judge gave out the punishments 
to the wrong-doers. The prisoners had to 
dress in suits of striped bed-ticking, and 
were obliged to break up stones for paving 
the road. There was certainly no fun for 




MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 89 


those who did not obey the laws of the 
Junior Republic. 

Everything went well that summer, and 
many people came to visit the boys and 
girls, who were happy because they were 
busy learning to be helpful men and women. 
The autumn came all too soon. 

“ It would be a shame to close every¬ 
thing up for the whole winter,’’ thought 
Mr. George. “ I will ask the boys if any 
of them are willing to stay and help me 
keep house.” 

At first twenty-five boys promised to 
remain, but when the train pulled into the 
station to take the rest of the company to 
the city, there were only five who were 
willing to stand by their word. The others 
were afraid of the cold, lonely months in 
the country. 

It did seem lonely, too, after the lively, 
busy summer. And there was little to 
eat for several weeks, except potatoes and 
tomatoes which had been raised on the 
farm during the summer. The winter was 
colder than usual. There were big holes 



90 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


in the roof, through which the sharp wind 
and snow crept in. The school was three 
and a half miles away, and frost-bitten 
ears and noses had to be thawed out at 
the end of the walk. But the boys were 
brave and stood by their kind friend, and 
before the winter was over three others came 
to join them. On Christmas there was a 
grand surprise, — the present of a fine 
cow, which gave the most delicious milk. 
It was such a treat to the little family, they 
did not think of the roast turkey and cran¬ 
berry sauce that richer children were having 
that day. 

All through the long winter not one of 
the boys wished to leave “ Daddy,” as 
they lovingly called Mr. George, and go 
back to the city. And when summer came 
round again, everything was in shape for 
a fresh start. There were more boys and 
girls than ever before, and they were all 
ready to make the George Junior Re¬ 
public a grand success. 

That was only a few years ago. Now, if 
you have a chance to visit the busy, happy 



MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 91 


place, you will find a real village, and a 
very lively one, too. When the brakeman 
calls out Freeville, and the train stops, you 
will step out on the platform, and find a 
stage waiting for you and other guests of 
the Republic. 

After you are all settled, the boy driver 
will shout, “ Gee-dap,” to his horses and 
away you will ride for half a mile or so. 
Then the driver yells “ Whoa,” and you 
draw up before the hotel of the Republic, 
where you register and are shown to your 
room. But you will not wish to stop there 
long, for you will be anxious to walk around 
this wonderful place, and see what boys 
and girls can do for themselves. 

The more you see, the more surprised 
you become. There is a store where gro¬ 
ceries and dry goods are sold,*a post-office, 
a bank, and a bakery where the very smell 
of home-made pies and cakes makes you 
hungry. 

After you have visited these places, 
which you must remember are carried on 
by the young people, you visit the laundry, 



92 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


as well as the printing office, where boys 
learn the trade of printing and publish 
the paper of the Republic. There is a 
carpenters’ shop, where saws and planes 
are kept busy from morning till night. 
There are cheery-looking cottages, where 
kind and loving house-mothers look after 
the boys and girls when work is over for 
the day. Indeed, there are so many places 
of interest, it will take a long time for you 
to see them all. Wherever you go, you no¬ 
tice one thing in particular, and that is 
the politeness of the young people, who 
take pleasure in showing you around, 
and who would be ashamed to take a 
“ tip ” if you should offer it to them. 

Among other things, you must be sure 
to take a walk around the farm, where you 
will find a herd of fine cattle, besides num¬ 
bers of horses, pigs, and chickens. If you 
visit the Republic in the summer time, the 
young farmers will proudly point out the 
broad fields of waving grain which they 
have planted and cared for. 

You must not think that the boys and 



MAGICIAN OF SYMPATHY 93 


girls of the Junior Republic work all of 
the time. Far from it! The boys’ base¬ 
ball and foot-ball teams show the result 
of long and careful training, and many an 
exciting game is played on the field set 
aside for their sports. 

As for the girls! well, if you should be 
so fortunate as to be invited to one of 
their parties you would be sure to have 
a good time. Games and dancing, music 
and dainty refreshments will make the 
hours pass all too quickly. 

Many of the evenings are taken up with 
concerts and plays, in which the boys and 
girls do much credit to themselves and 
their kind helpers, but first of all to the 
good friend, William Reuben George, who 
has made all these things possible. 

It would be hard to find a happier com¬ 
pany of young people than those who make 
up the Junior Republic at Freeville, New 
York. People in other parts of America 
have been filled with wonder at what Mr. 
George has done. 

“ There are boys and girls in our own 



94 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


cities who need just such help,” they have 
said. And so to-day they are busy starting 
Junior Republics of their own, and trying 
to make them as much as possible like the 
first and greatest one founded by William 
George. 



IV 


THE MAGICIAN OF SOUND 

You and your friends have doubtless 
spent many pleasant evenings in the com¬ 
pany of the phonograph. As you listened 
to the music or the stories which were re¬ 
peated for you by this wonderful machine, 
did you sometimes think of the man who 
invented it, Thomas Alva Edison? 

Once upon a time (1847) a baby boy was 
born in the small town of Milan, Ohio. 
The boy’s father, who belonged to an old 
Dutch family, was quite poor and earned 
his living by doing odd jobs for his neigh¬ 
bors. His mother had been a school teacher 
in Canada before she was married. Her 
parents had come there from Scotland. 

When the child Thomas was seven years 
old, he moved with his family to Port 
Huron, Michigan, and at twelve years of 


96 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


age he became a newsboy on the Grand 
Trunk Railroad. It is said that up to 
this time he had spent only two straight 
months in a schoolroom. 

He had learned to read, however, and, 
like his mother, loved books very dearly, 
so that even in his busy life as a newsboy 
on the trains, he found time to read not 
only the daily papers but many books 
besides. 

Some of these were not easy books to 
read. The boy had such a longing to 
learn about the world aind the great men 
in it, that at one time he decided to read 
every book in the free library of a neigh¬ 
boring city. He started out very bravely, 
taking each volume in turn as he found it 
upon the shelves. He had finished fifteen 
feet of closely packed books before he said 
to himself: “ It is of no use to keep on in 
this way; I can never do it all, and may as 
well give up such a task.” But he had 
already read books of such deep learning 
that their mere names would scare many 
people. 



MAGICIAN OF SOUND 


97 


In i860, when the newsboy was thirteen 
years old, the Civil War broke out. Every 
one was interested in the news coming from 
the battlefield. Thomas worked early and 
late carrying his papers on board the trains, 
yet he did not make much money, for he 
received very little more for the papers 
than he had to pay for them himself. 
If, at the end of the day, he had any left 
on his hands, he was the one who had to 
lose, and not the publishers of the papers. 
He was obliged to make a good guess as 
to how many he could sell. 

By this time he had become friends 
with a man in the composing room of the 
Detroit Free Press . He got this new friend 
to show him the proof of the paper before 
it was set up. By reading this he could 
learn the news of the day, and could guess 
pretty well how many papers he could sell. 
If the news was exciting, he would^start 
out with a large bundle; but if not, he 
knew that it was of no use to carry a great 
many. He generally sold about two hun¬ 
dred papers in a day, but if something 



98 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


important had happened, he would sell 
at least three hundred. 

Then came the great battle of Shiloh. 
The news had not yet appeared in type 
when the boy’s friend showed him the 
proof all set up for the morning paper. 
There were big headlines, saying that 
eighty thousand men had been killed or 
wounded in the terrible battle that had 
just been fought. 

Young Edison saw his chance in a flash. 
Wherever the train stopped that day, 
people would want a paper with the news 
of the battle, — that is, if they knew that 
a great battle had taken place. How could 
he arrange to have them find it out before 
the train arrived at the different stations? 
Ah! he thought of a way. He hurried to 
the telegraph office and made an offer to 
the man in charge there. 

He said: “ Will you send a wire to each 
station along the line telling that a great 
battle has been fought and that a great 
many lives have been lost? Ask the station 
master to chalk the news on the bulletin 



MAGICIAN OF SOUND 99 


boards, or wherever the people look for 
the time of the coming and going of the 
trains. If you will do this for me, I will 
furnish you the daily newspaper and several 
magazines for the next six months.” 

The operator agreed, and Thomas was 
delighted. But he had something else to 
think of. He did not have enough money 
to buy all of the papers that he wished to 
have. He needed a thousand at least, 
for he felt sure that he could sell that 
number. 

He went to the newspaper office and 
boldly asked for the thousand papers. 
But as he did not have the money needed 
to pay for them, the man gruffly said no. 
Thomas was not surprised, but he would 
not give up so easily. He hurried away 
and went up-stairs to seek the editor him¬ 
self, Mr. Storey. It took all of his courage 
to do this, but he felt that his fortune 
depended on it. He, a newsboy, to ask to 
see the editor himself! It seemed very bold 
yet he would do it. 

In a few moments he was taken into Mr, 




100 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


Storey’s office. The tall, dark-eyed editor 
looked at him and listened. Could he, 
Thomas Edison, a newsboy, have fifteen 
hundred newspapers and pay for them 
after they were sold? Mr. Storey looked 
at him for a moment and then made up 
his mind. He wrote a few words on a paper. 

“ Take that down-stairs and you will 
get what you want,” he told the boy, hand¬ 
ing him the paper. It was one of the hap¬ 
piest moments in Thomas Edison’s life. 
The magic order was taken to the room 
below, and the big pile of papers was handed 
over to him. 

There was not a moment to lose. Thomas 
got three boys to help him fold the papers. 
Then he hurried away to board his train. 

A short time afterwards the train reached 
the first station at which it was going to 
stop. It was a quiet little place, where 
Thomas usually sold two papers. But to 
his great delight, the platform was crowded 
with people. The news on the bulletin 
board had spread through the town like 
fire, and the people had come from all 



MAGICIAN OF SOUND 101 


directions to meet the train and buy the 
paper. 

Before the train moved out, Thomas 
had sold one or two hundred copies of the 
paper at five cents apiece. At the next 
stopping place, another crowd was waiting, 
— larger even than the first one. Here our 
newsboy raised the price of his papers to 
ten cents and sold three hundred. He met 
with the same success all along the line 
till the train reached Port Huron. There 
Thomas landed with his remaining papers, 
which he placed in a wagon waiting for 
him. From this wagon he shouted the 
news, and so eager were the people to buy 
the papers, that they gladly paid the price 
that he now asked, — twenty-five cents 
and even more for a single copy. 

As he went by a church, the service was 
going on, but the people within heard the 
boy’s strong voice outside shouting the 
news of the battle, and they came rushing 
out to gather around him. They even bid 
against each other for copies of the precious 
paper. 



102 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


The success of this day was all due to 
the telegraph. As the newsboy thought 
of it, he made up his mind then and there 
to become a telegraph operator. 

While young Edison was still a trainboy 
on the Grand Trunk Railroad, he printed 
a paper of his very own. He managed to 
save enough money to buy a font of type, 
and a small printing press which he could 
work by hand. He did all of his work in 
the corner of a baggage car. He called 
this paper The Grand Trunk Herald and 
sold it, for the most part, to men who 
worked on the railroad. 

It contained all the news of the trains, as 
well as any bits of gossip which the sharp 
ears of the boy could pick up at the different 
stations where the train stopped. Here 
are some of the news items which appeared. 

“ John Robinson, baggage master at 
James Creek Station, fell off the platform 
yesterday and hurt his leg. The boys are 
sorry for John.” 

“ No. 3 Burlington Engine has gone into 
the shed for repairs.” 



MAGICIAN OF SOUND 103 


“ LOST — LOST — LOST 

“ A small parcel of cloth was lost in the 
cars. The finder will be liberally rewarded.” 

The newsboy was very proud of his 
paper, and he had a right to be. He was his 
own reporter, editor, and publisher. The 
Grand Trunk Herald came to a sad end, 
however. This is how it happened. The 
ink which young Edison had been using 
in his printing, did not suit him. In try¬ 
ing to make it better, he became interested 
in making experiments. One day, while 
he was working with some phosphorus, 
he set fire to the car. The conductor, who 
had been troubled for a long while by the 
smells which came to him from time to 
time because of Edison’s experiments, was 
now very angry. 

Without any warning the newsboy was 
thrown out of the car, with the remains 
of his press and type around him. It is 
even said that the conductor first gave 
him a thrashing. It was an unhappy day 
for this boy who had been trying his best 





104 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


to get along in the world. With all his 
hard work, he had never as yet earned 
enough money to keep himself in good 
clothes, nor even to buy all of the food that 
he needed. 

This ended his printing business, for he 
never tried to start another newspaper. 
From that time on he spent all of his 
spare time in learning what he could about 
telegraphy. 

As he went over the road selling news¬ 
papers, he made friends with every operator. 
He got each one to give him something 
which could be used in his work. From 
the boys in the town he bought wire, old 
bottles, and pieces of zinc, for which he 
gave them three cents a pound. Sometimes 
Thomas begged so hard that they even 
cut out the zinc from under their mothers’ 
stoves and brought it to him. 

The boy stretched wires across the base¬ 
ment of his father’s house. For batteries 
he used the old bottles, nails, and zinc 
which he had obtained from the boys. Now 
he could practice sending telegrams him- 



MAGICIAN OF SOUND 105 


self. He had a young friend and neighbor, 
named James Ward, who helped him in his 
experiments. The two boys stretched a wire 
underground — it was the common kind 
used on stove pipes — from one house to 
the other. It was insulated with bottles. 
The key the boys used was a piece of spring 
brass. How were they going to make a 
current that would pass along the wire? 
Edison hit upon a grand idea, as he thought. 
He got two cats of fierce temper, fastened 
a wire to their legs, rubbed their backs to 
get up a friction, and waited to see what 
would happen. Now, the cats had no idea 
of helping the boys in their experiment, 
and fled in fright. You can imagine the 
shouts and yells of the boys, as they fol¬ 
lowed after them. Of course the plan failed, 
but this little story shows Edison’s busy 
and thoughtful mind even when young. 

Every moment that he could get for 
experiments was so precious to him, that 
when his day’s work as a newsboy was 
ended, he did not wait for the train to 
come to a full stop at the station. When it 




106 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


was still going at the rate of twenty-five 
miles an hour, he would jump off and land 
in a pile of sand which had been placed 
for him in a certain spot. 

One day Thomas did a brave deed which, 
in the end, was the cause of his getting the 
help which he needed. It was a bright 
summer morning. The train on which 
was “ A1 ” Edison, as the trainmen generally 
called him, had stopped at Mt. Clemens for 
a half hour or so, in order to shunt some 
•freight cars from one track to another. 
While he was waiting, the newsboy got out 
and was amusing himself by looking at 
some poultry in the station master’s yard 
close by. 

He chanced to turn his eyes toward the 
track just as a car which had been given 
a push by a long train of freight cars came 
bounding along. There, just a short dis¬ 
tance in front of it, stood the station mas¬ 
ter’s little boy, Jimmie, two and a half 
years old. The child was playing with peb¬ 
bles, and had no thought of danger. Young 
Edison had often frolicked with the baby 



MAGICIAN OF SOUND 107 


boy and loved him. He saw in an instant 
that there was not a moment to lose. 
Tossing his bundle of papers and his cap 
over on the platform, he made a mad dash 
toward the child to save him. He was 
risking his own life, but he did not stop 
to think of this. He had barely time to 
seize Jimmie and throw him out of the way 
of the car, before it reached the very place 
where the child had stood playing. A wheel 
of the car struck Edison’s boot. If he had 
been one second later, he would probably 
have been killed. 

As it was, he and his little friend landed 
so that their faces were ground into the 
sharp gravel of the track bed. Jimmie’s 
father was not far away, but he did not 
know that anything had happened, till he 
saw the trainmen carrying young Edison 
and Jimmie to the platform of the station. 

When he reached them and heard what 
had been done for his child, his heart was 
full. He wished to do something to show 
how grateful he was. He knew that the 
newsboy was eager to learn all that he 



108 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


could about telegraphy. So, then and there, 
he made him an offer. 

Young Edison was to spend a part of 
each day at the station, keeping little 
Jimmie out of harm’s way. In return, he 
would teach him telegraphy, so that in a 
short time he would know enough to get 
a place as night operator. This offer 
was gladly accepted. Young Edison was 
eighteen years old when he got his first 
regular place as telegraph operator in the 
city of Indianapolis. There he made his 
first invention. 

This is how he came to think of it. 
There was a very quick operator at the 
Cincinnati end of the line. Mr. Edison 
could not take down the messages as 
fast as this man could send them. 

“ We must keep up with him in some 
way,” thought he, and he set his busy 
brain to work. 

He soon got an idea. He took two old 
Morse registers, and fixed them so that if 
he ran a slip of paper through them the 
dots and dashes were recorded by the first 



MAGICIAN OF SOUND 109 

-- — . . . - . 

register, and could then be given out by 
the second one as slowly or as fast as he de¬ 
sired. 

The young man was proud indeed of his 
automatic recorder. It was a rude instru¬ 
ment, to be sure, and afterwards its inventor 
found that it was far from perfect. But 
it was one step toward the phonograph, 
which Mr. Edison planned long afterwards, 
and which gave him the name of being 
the greatest inventor in the world. 

In the early days he was always thinking 
of new ways to do things. One winter’s 
day there was an ice jam in the river 
between Port Huron, on the American side, 
and Sarnia, over in Canada. The distance 
across was a mile and a half, and it was not 
safe for any one to attempt to cross over. 
The ice jam had broken the cable so that 
no telegram could be sent. The people on 
the Canadian side did not know what had 
happened and must be told right away. 

Young Edison suddenly had an idea. He 
sprang upon a locomotive and took hold of 
the valve which had to do with the whistle. 



110 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


He said to himself: “ I can break up the 
whistle into short and long notes like the 
dots and dashes used in telegraphing. I hope 
that I can make the people across the river 
understand what I am doing.” He no 
sooner thought of this than he began to "act. 

“Hello there, Sarnia! Do you get me? 
Do you hear what I say? ” was the message 
which he made the locomotive toot. There 
was no reply. Again the engine tooted out: 
“ Do you hear what I say, Sarnia? ” Still 
there was no answer. 

But Edison kept on just the same, and 
after the fifth time, the people across the 
river understood the message of the young 
man, and knew what must have happened. 
Then they began to toot back a reply. 
Before long the information had been given. 

Edison did not stay long as a telegraph 
operator in one office. He was so interested 
in making experiments of his own, that he 
often forgot his duty to the men for whom 
he was working. In one place he was on 
night duty. The manager told him that 
he must report the word “ six ” every half 



MAGICIAN OF SOUND 111 


hour in order to show that he was awake. 
But Edison fitted up a wheel that would do 
this work for him. At another place he 
kept leaving the office when he should have 
been there, and went to a library in the 
city to read. He was hungry to learn all 
that he could, and there was much that he 
did not as yet know, and which he might 
find in books! 

He soon got the name of being very 
careful as well as quick at reporting tele¬ 
grams. At last he had a chance of getting 
a good position in Boston. He had never 
cared much about his appearance, for he 
was too busy thinking about other things. 
So, when he walked into the Boston office 
one bitter cold day, he was a queer-looking 
sight. A bedraggled linen duster clung 
about his thin body. A broad-brimmed, 
slouch hat sat close down on his head. 
With long steps he marched into the office 
of the superintendent. 

“ Here I am,” he said. 

“ Who are you ? ” demanded the superin¬ 
tendent, slowly looking him over. 



112 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


“ Tom Edison,” was the answer. 

“ And who on earth might Tom Edison 
be?” 

After the young man had explained that 
he was a telegraph operator, and that he 
had been ordered to come there, he was 
told to go to the operating room, where 
he was to wait for orders. As he sat there 
he could hear the other men laughing at 
him and making fun of his looks. Little 
did he care, however. 

He did not have to wait long before a 
call came from the New York office. The 
operator there was noted for his quickness 
in sending messages. Every one was busy 
but the newcomer. The head of the office 
looked around and said: “ Let that new 
fellow try him.” 

For the next four hours and a half 
Edison was busy taking down the messages 
in the clear hand which he always used. 
Faster and faster came the messages, but 
just as fast were they taken down by the 
awkward-looking operator who but a short 
time before had been laughed at by the 



MAGICIAN OF SOUND 113 


others. They began to gather around him 
in astonishment. 

When he had kept on for the four and a 
half hours without stopping, this word was 
ticked out on his instrument. 

“ Hello.” 

“ Hello, yourself.” 

“ Who are you ? ” were the next words. 

“ Tom Edison.” 

“ You are the first man in the country 
that could ever take me at my fastest, and 
the only one who could ever sit at the other 
end of my wire for more than two hours 
and a half. I’m proud to know you.” 

It is no wonder that after this the manager 
of the Boston office was glad to hire Mr. 
Edison. The first invention for which this 
country gave him a patent was made in 
the year 1868 , while Mr. Edison, then 
twenty-one years old, was at work in this 
office. It was a machine which would take 
down votes as fast as they were cast, and 
was called an electrical vote recorder. 
Up to this time votes were always counted 
slowly by some person. 



114 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


From Boston, Mr. Edison went to New 
York. When he arrived in the city he was 
still poor, — so poor, indeed, that he owed 
two or three hundred dollars, and he had 
no idea how he could pay so much money 
back. 

But in a short time there was a great 
change. People began to see that he was 
not like other telegraph operators. He 
kept discovering new and better ways for 
using electricity. He made other inven¬ 
tions. 

Then a great day came in his life. The 
company for whom he worked said among 
themselves: “ We must have Mr. Edison’s 
inventions for our very own. We do not 
wish any one else to use them.” 

Some of the company now went to Mr. 
Edison to talk the matter over with him. 
They asked him how much he wanted for 
these inventions. 

He answered: “ I do not know how much 
they are worth. Make me an offer.” 

When he said this he had no idea that 
the men would be willing to give him more 



MAGICIAN OF SOUND 115 


than five thousand dollars. But how glad 
he would be if they gave him as much as 
this sum! He would use it in making 
experiments. You can imagine how as¬ 
tonished he was when he was asked: “ How 
would forty thousand dollars strike you? ” 

He said afterwards that at these words 
he could have been knocked down with a 
feather. Of course he gladly accepted the 
offer, and without wasting any time, he 
used this money in fitting up a workshop 
where he could experiment to his heart’s 
delight. He was now a happy man. From 
this time on he was busy giving new in¬ 
ventions to the world, and getting more and 
more money, until to-day he is a rich 
man. 

In the year 1873 he was married. For 
his wife’s sake he bought a beautiful home 
at Menlo Park, twenty-four miles from New 
York. There he fitted up a larger labora¬ 
tory than he had ever had before, — indeed, 
one of the largest of its kind in the whole 
world. It is said that he spent at least one 
hundred thousand dollars on the instru- 



116 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


ments that he would need in making 
experiments. 

He cared little for the beautiful house; 
but was glad that his wife and children 
could enjoy it. Neither did he care for 
horses, or yachts, or any of the other things 
in which most people delight. As for him¬ 
self, there was no place in which he could 
take so much pleasure as in a corner of 
his own workroom, busy on some new in¬ 
vention. 

Why has he succeeded? It is because 
he has kept at his work. He has put his 
thoughts and his strength into that. Where- 
ever he has gone he has carried a note-book, 
and as fast as he got a new idea about an 
experiment, he would jot it down. When¬ 
ever he was traveling he would sit thinking, 
thinking, thinking. Never a moment has 
been lost in Mr. Edison’s life. 

One of the men who once worked for him 
tells a story which shows how he persists 
in anything which he is trying to do. His 
printing telegraph gave out, and would 
not work. Mr. Edison shut himself in his 



MAGICIAN OF SOUND 117 


workroom and locked the door, saying: 
“ I will not come out until I have discovered 
what is the matter.” 

He kept his word. For the next sixty 
hours he stayed in that room, stopping only 
long enough to eat some crackers and 
cheese. But when he had learned what was 
the trouble, he slept for the next twenty 
hours. 

Mr. Edison was the first to discover that 
telegrams can be sent in both directions 
on the same line and at the same time. He 
is also the one who has showed that elec¬ 
tricity can be used in the same way as 
gas for lighting houses. 

Now, in the year 1912 , he has already 
been given patents for more than seven 
hundred inventions. Since he is only 
sixty-four years old, and others of his 
family have lived to be more than a hun¬ 
dred, we have no idea how many more he 
may yet discover. 

Among the most important things that 
he has given us are the megaphone, which 
magnifies sound, the incandescent lamp and 



118 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


light system, and the aerophone. One of 
the most interesting of all his discoveries is 
the phonograph, which came to his mind 
through an accident. He was singing into 
the mouth-piece of a telephone. The vibra¬ 
tions which his voice made in the air sent 
the fine steel point into his finger. This set 
him thinking. He said to himself: “ I will 
make a talking machine.” 

He got a strip of telegraph paper, and 
found that by means of the vibrations of 
his voice, he could make the alphabet 
on the paper with the fine steel point. He 
shouted, “ Hello! Hello! ” into the mouth¬ 
piece. Then he ran the paper back over 
the steel point. He could now hear the 
words given back. They sounded very 
faint, to be sure, but he had succeeded. 
He made up his mind to keep on until he 
had made a good talking machine. 

When people heard of the new idea, they 
laughed a great deal. But although years 
passed before he had invented a successful 
phonograph, Mr. Edison never gave up. 
He worked on and on, till the time came 



MAGICIAN OF SOUND 119 


when people stopped laughing, and began 
to wonder at and enjoy this great inven¬ 
tion. 

Many playthings to-day are wonderful 
because of the phonograph. Little girls 
are made happy by presents of dolls which 
sing songs and recite verses by means of 
phonographs shut up within their tiny 
bodies. There is not time here to tell of 
all the-phonographic toys which are made. 

Mr. Edison’s present home is at West 
Orange, in New Jersey. It is a perfect 
palace, in which you may go from one 
beautiful room to another. If you should 
visit him there perhaps you would be in¬ 
terested to stay longest in the room he 
calls his “ den.” It is very large, and filled 
with beautiful furniture. Here you may 
see the medals which have been sent to 
the great inventor from different countries. 
Here you may ; examine presents which 
have been given him by rulers and other 
great people all over the world. And here, 
too, you may find Mr. Edison romping 
with his children, whom he loves very 



120 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


dearly; for busy as he is, he finds time to 
enjoy their company as well as that of 
his wife, who has always been a true help¬ 
mate. 



V 


THE MAGICIAN OF FRIENDSHIP 

Have you ever heard of “ Hull House ” 
in the heart of the city of Chicago, and of 
the great work done there by Miss Jane 
Addams? A few years ago it was just_one 
house, as you would suppose from its 
name. Now, however, there are many 
buildings, but they are still called “ Hull 
House.” 

Any one who is in trouble is made wel¬ 
come there. The man who has lost his 
job, the sick woman, helpless, old grand¬ 
parents, little, motherless children, even 
tiny babies who cannot walk or take care 
of themselves, may be sure of kind words 
and smiles and loving help at Hull House. 

Miss Jane Addams has brought this 
about. When she was a little child she was 
not poor like the people whom she helps 


122 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


to-day. She was born in a comfortable 
home in Cedarville, Illinois, at a time when 
the great Civil War was raging in this 
country. Perhaps she learned to be sorry 
for others because, although she did not 
suffer from cold or hunger, she had a 
trouble of her own. It was this, — her 
spine was weak and bent, and it was hard 
for the sensitive child to forget it. When 
she walked she had to carry her head on 
one side, and she fancied that she must be 
ugly to look at on this account. 

Poor little girl! No one knew how much 
she suffered, or how sorry she felt for her 
father because he did not have a beautiful 
daughter. 

“ How handsome he is,” she thought. 
“ It is too bad that strangers who come here 
should find out that I am his child.” 

Little Jane loved her father with all her 
heart, and one of her greatest delights was 
to walk home with him from Sunday- 
school. .He taught the Bible class in a 
corner of the church near the pulpit, and 
the child imagined that every one must 



MAGICIAN OF FRIENDSHIP 123 


take as much delight as she did in looking 
at his fine face while he sat talking. Some¬ 
times visitors came to the church from other 
towns. Then the little Jane would say to 
herself: “ Those strangers must not know 
that I am the child of that handsome man. 
It would bring shame upon him.” 

So, when Sunday-school was over, she 
would make her way to the side of her 
uncle James, and leave the church with 
him. No doubt he wondered at this, 
for he knew how his niece liked to be with 
her father, but he did not ask any questions. 
He only smiled kindly at her, and said: 
“ So you are going to walk with me to-day.” 

The sensitive child had this feeling in 
regard to her father for several years. 
Then something happened which put an 
end to the trouble. One day she was 
walking through a street of a city a short 
distance from Cedarville. As she reached 
the bank, who should come out of the 
door but her father! He looked particu¬ 
larly tall and handsome in a high, silk 
hat. When he caught sight of his little 



124 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


daughter, he playfully took off his hat and 
made a very deep bow. All the “ strange ” 
people on the crowded sidewalk could 
see this mark of attention, and the child 
suddenly saw how foolish she had been 
about her looks. Her father was not 
ashamed of her. Why should she be 
ashamed of herself? 

There were two big mills opposite the 
little girl’s home, which belonged to her 

c. • i 

father. One was a flour mill where loads 
of wheat were daily ground into fine dust. 
In the other, logs which had been brought 
down the stream close by were sawed into 
lumber. Jane used to like to sit on these 
logs, as they moved toward the big, buz¬ 
zing saw which was to cut them up. Nearer 
and nearer the young rider would come; 
then, just before the log reached the sharp 
teeth of the saw, off she would spring. 
It was exciting, but not very safe sport 
for a delicate child. 

But, after all, the flour mill gave the 
most pleasure. There were empty bins in 
which Jane and her stepbrother could play 



MAGICIAN OF FRIENDSHIP 125 


at hide-and-seek. Down in the basement 
there were piles of bran and shorts. Some¬ 
times the miller would let the children 
sprinkle the edges of one of these piles 
with water from the mill-stones, and play 
with it as though it were sand. The flour 
mill was certainly a wonderful place in 
which to pass a morning or an afternoon. 

Jane longed greatly to have a “ miller’s 
thumb ” because her father had flattened 
his own thumb by means of the work he 
had done in the mill years ago. So the 
child would sit beside the mill-stones, 
rubbing grains of wheat between her thumb 
and fingers, looking every once in a while 
to see if the work had made any change, 
and the flattening that she longed for had 
come about. 

When she was eight years old she had 
a beautiful new cloak of which she was 
very proud. She put it over her shoulders 
and stood before her father, expecting him 
to praise it. Yes, he told her, it was very 
pretty. But it was so much prettier than 
any which the other children would wear 



126 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


at Sunday-school that day, that it might 
make them feel bad. So she had better 
wear her old cloak, which was warm enough. 
Besides, no one would feel bad then. 

His little daughter did as he said, but 
she was very sober as she walked by his 
side that day to church. It had been 
pretty hard to give up the pleasure of 
wearing the new cloak. At last, as they 
drew near the church, Jane asked what was 
to be done about it, for some people were 
sure to have prettier clothes than others. 

“ Nothing can be done,” was the answer. 
“ People can be equal, though, in learning 
and in goodness. And it is very stupid 
for them to keep on wearing clothes which 
keep them from being equal in dress.” 

Jane and her stepbrother spent a great 
deal of time out-of-doors in the lovely 
country around their home. High up on a 
hill back of the village was a grove of 
pine trees, which Mr. Addams had planted 
years before, and here the wind sang many 
a sweet, low song to the children as it 
swept through the branches. 



MAGICIAN OF FRIENDSHIP 127 


Along the sides of the mill-stream were 
some high bluffs in which were “ real ” 
caves. One of them was so dark and deep 
that a lighted candle was needed to see 
the inside. It was great sport for the 
children to play among these caves and 
imagine all sorts of things happening to 
them. They had many a game there that 
lasted day after day and week after 
week. 

Among the other odd things which Jane 
and her brother thought of, was the build¬ 
ing of an altar down beside the mill-stream. 
In the autumn the children delighted in 
getting stores of black walnuts. One day 
they decided that one out of every hundred 
nuts should be sacrificed. They were placed 
in a pile on the barn floor, and a pitcher of 
newly made cider was poured over them. 
Then they were ready for the sacrifice. 

Among other things, the children brought 
a book which they loved dearly and placed 
it on the altar, and then they stood by and 
watched it until it had burned to ashes. 

They were brought up, like all good 



128 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


children, to say their prayers. But after 
a while plain English did not seem good 
enough to them. So, although they were 
not old enough yet to study Latin in school, 
they set to work to learn the Latin words 
for the Lord’s Prayer, which they had found 
in some old book. Of course, they did not 
know how to pronounce the words, but 
that did not matter. They felt that they 
were more religious if they repeated the 
prayer in a way different from that of most 
people. 

One night Jane had a strange dream. 
It seemed to her that every one in the 
world but herself was dead, and, as there 
was no one else alive to do it, she had to 
make a wagon wheel. There was the vil¬ 
lage just the same as ever, and around the 
corner stood the shop of the blacksmith. 
There was the blazing fire on the forge 
with the anvil near by. The blacksmith 
was not in his place, however, nor any one 
else who could do the work. In this queer 
dream the child felt sure that before every¬ 
thing in the world could go on again, the 



MAGICIAN OF FRIENDSHIP 129 


wheel must be made and that she was the 
only one there to do it. But she did not 
know how, and she was greatly troubled. 

Night after night she had the same dream, 
and morning after morning the little six- 
year-old girl would make her way to the 
smithy. You can picture her now, standing 
in the doorway and watching the smith 
with big, eager eyes. Could she ever make 
a wheel, she wondered. It seemed like 
such hard work, and there were so many 
unpleasant things which had to be done 
before it was finished. Sometimes she grew 
brave enough to ask questions of the 
blacksmith. 

“ Do you always have to sizzle the iron 
in water? ” was one of them. And when the 
good-natured man would answer: “ Sure, 
that’s what makes the iron hot,” the 
child’s heart would sink and she would go 
sadly away. No, it didn’t seem possible 
that she could ever, ever, ever make a 
wheel. 

Once upon a time the little girl did some¬ 
thing which she knew was very wrong. 



130 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


She told a lie! When night came and she 
was tucked away in bed, she could not go 
to sleep. She kept thinking of what she 
had done. She knew what a dreadful 
thing a lie was. She thought of heaven, and 
feared that she could not go there at all 
on account of that lie. No wonder the poor, 
sickly child could not get to sleep. 

The minutes passed slowly by, and still 
she thought of the wrong she had done. 
Suppose her father should die before she 
had a chance to confess. It was too dread¬ 
ful to think of. She must not wait till 
morning, to tell him. She jumped out of 
bed, and went bravely out of her room and 
down the stairs. But when she reached the 
lower hall, she began to be afraid. The 
front door was always left unlocked, and 
bad people could come in if they wished. 

As she thought of the dangers before her, 
she could go no farther. Besides, there was 
the big living-room through which she must 
make her way before she could reach the 
door of her father’s room. The very next 
step would bring her to a piece of oil- 



MAGICIAN OF FRIENDSHIP 131 


cloth in front of the hall door. It was cold, 
and her feet were bare. 

It is no wonder that she clung to the post 
at the foot of the stairs as she thought of 
all these terrible things. But at last she 
grew brave enough to make a bold dash 
forward. And now we can see her standing 
breathless beside her father’s bed, as she 
tells him what has brought her there. 

When the story was finished, he said: 
“ If I have a little girl who will tell lies, 
I am very glad she feels so bad that she 
cannot go to sleep afterwards.” 

Somehow these words took away all the 
pain. Her father understood and loved 
her just the same. She could go back to 
bed now without fear, and sleep would 
be sure to come. 

You will remember that Jane Addams 
was born at the beginning of a great war. 
During her childhood dreadful things were 
taking place in other parts of the country, 
though her own village was quiet and peace¬ 
ful. When the little girl was three and one 
half years old, something happened which 



132 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


made even Jane feel that the world was 
not all like Cedarville. 

There were two white gate posts at the 
end of the walk in front of her house. 
One day she discovered an American flag 
on each of these posts. Beside them was 
a strip of black, the badge of mourning. 
What could it mean? Over the walk to 
the house she ran as fast as her little feet 
could carry her, to ask her father what 
was the matter. It is often said that haste 
makes waste. It was so in her case, at 
any rate, for she had not taken many steps 
before she tumbled down on the hard 
gravel. 

But up she jumped and hurried on her 
way. When she reached the house she 
saw what she had never seen before. Her 
father was in tears! 

“ What are those things there for? ” 
she asked. 

“ The greatest man in the world has just 
died,” her father answered. 

He was weeping for Abraham Lincoln, 
and not only he, but all America was 



MAGICIAN OF FRIENDSHIP 133 


mourning over the death of that good and 
wonderful man. The little girl suddenly 
discovered that there was a big world out¬ 
side of her own home, and that Lincoln 
had been a part of it. 

Jane’s father had known and loved 
Lincoln. He always spoke of him as 
44 Mr. Lincoln,” but whenever he mentioned 
the name he showed such deep feeling, 
that the little daughter herself was 
moved. 

One day Mr. Addams took from his desk 
a small packet of letters and showed them 
to Jane. They had been written to him 
by Lincoln, and each one of them began: 
44 My dear double d’d Addams.” This was, 
of course, because Mr. Addams, unlike 
most people of that name, spelled it with 
two d’s, and Mr. Lincoln joked about it 
in his quiet way. 

There were several pictures of Mr. Lin¬ 
coln in Jane’s house; one of them was the 
picture of the President with his son Tad 
whom he loved very dearly, and who had 
died when he was but a boy. 



134 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


As Jane began to understand more and 
more what war meant, she liked to look 
at a list of names of the “ Addams Guard,” 
which hung in the living-room. They were 
the names of men who had gone from her 
village to take part in the war. Some of 
these soldiers had died in battle. 

This list hung so far up on the wall that 
the little girl and her brother could not 
see the names from the floor. Even if the 
children stood on a chair they were not high 
enough. So they would place the big 
Bible and the dictionary on the chair-seat. 
The Bible came first, of course. It would 
not do to put their feet directly on that 
sacred book. As it was, it almost made them 
shiver to think of using it at all. 

When they had perched themselves upon 
the books, they would examine the names, 
one by one, and pick out those which be¬ 
longed to the men who had fallen on the 
battle-field. By this time the war had be¬ 
come a very real thing to the children. 

Jane and her brother were often taken 
for a drive. Then they were sure to ask 



MAGICIAN OF FRIENDSHIP 135 


to ride past the home of some soldier who 
had gone from Cedarville to the war. 
Or perhaps in the garden there were flowers 
to be picked and given away. Then the 
children would ask that these flowers be 
taken to the mother of one of the heroes 
who belonged to the Addams Guard. * 

Sometimes a “ real ” general came to 
visit Mr. Addams. It was a great day, 
and Jane was filled with excitement to 
think that this famous man was actually 
in her own home for her to see and hear. 
It was a wonderful event indeed when such 
a visit was paid. 

The little girl, as you can see, was grow¬ 
ing up with a deep love for the heroes of 
the war which had lately ended. But, 
strongest of all, was her love for Abraham 
Lincoln, the greatest of all Americans, as 
Jane’s father taught her to believe. 

She learned that sixty-five miles north 
of her home, in the State Capitol of Wis¬ 
consin, a wonderful eagle had his home. 
He was called, “ Old Abe,” in honor of 
Lincoln. He had been carried by the Eighth 



136 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


Wisconsin Regiment through the whole 
war, and though he had been in the thick 
of many battles, he had come home safe 
and sound. Now, thought Jane, sixty-five 
miles is not a long distance for an eagle to 
fly. Suppose he should escape from his 
keeper some day and fly southward. Why, 
he might pass over the very apple orchard 
where the little girl and her brother spent 
much of their time. It is no wonder, then, 
that they often turned their eyes toward the 
sky to see if “ Old Abe ” was drawing 
near. 

An event came in Jane’s life which will 
always be remembered. One summer day 
she and her brother were taken to visit 
“ Old Abe ” in his own home. The journey 
was made in a carriage and the drive was 
a beautiful one, past wide fields of ripening 
grain. Towards the end, the road led among 
hills and past lovely lakes. And then the 
city itself appeared in sight, and the dome 
of the Capitol where “ Old Abe ” was now 
living so quietly, could be plainly seen 
against the sky. A few minutes after- 



MAGICIAN OF FRIENDSHIP 137 


wards the children left the carriage and 
were soon standing before “ Old Abe.” 
An old soldier in a blue army coat had 
charge of the noble bird. He described 
the battles through which the eagle had 
passed without so much as a scratch, and 
answered all the questions which the chil¬ 
dren asked him. Ever afterwards “ Old 
Abe ” had his place in the picture which 
Jane’s mind painted of brave soldiers 
marching to battle. 

When the little girl had learned all she 
could at the village school, she left home 
to study at a seminary in Rockford. She 
lived a very quiet life there, working hard. 
Her class chose for their motto, the Saxon 
word for lady, meaning bread-giver, while 
the poppy was chosen to give the class- 
color, because it grows in many places 
among the wheat, and because a quieting 
medicine which stops pain is made from 
the poppy. Jane and her mates were 
much pleased at what they had chosen. 
They said: “Wherever there is hunger 
which can only be satisfied with food, 



138 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


there is sure to be pain which must be 
relieved.” 

One of the pleasantest things in Jane’s 
life at the seminary was the Sunday morn¬ 
ing visit to the neat and dainty room of her 
Greek teacher, where the two would read 
the Gospel together in Greek. The teacher 
herself was so charming, and the place so 
full of peace and quiet, that those mornings 
were never afterwards forgotten. 

After Jane had finished her studies she 
made several trips to Europe. She visited 
galleries filled with the world’s most beauti¬ 
ful paintings; she saw the noblest pieces 
of sculpture; she traveled among grand 
mountains and lovely lakes. 

But she also looked upon many sad 
sights. She went at night to the East 
Side of London and looked upon the faces 
of the very poor. She learned of the life 
in the factories and mills, where little chil¬ 
dren, who should be playing out-of-doors, 
were kept busy through the long day. In 
her own home, America, she saw some 
sad sights, too. The time came at last 




MAGICIAN OF FRIENDSHIP 139 


when she felt that she herself had a work 
to do, — she would make poor people hap¬ 
pier in every way that she could. 

During Miss Addams’s life at Rockford 
Seminary, she had heard many talks about 
the work of missionaries in lands far from 
home. But she was not as interested in 
them as many of her friends were. An¬ 
other work was waiting for her. Years 
afterwards she discovered what that work 
was, and that the place for her to perform 
it was right here in her own country among 
the very poor. 

She talked the matter over with Miss 
Starr, a dear friend of hers, and although 
they were then across the ocean in Spain, 
they made a plan of what should be done 
when they reached home. A few months 
afterwards the two ladies were back in the 
United States. They went to the great 
city of Chicago and were soon busily at 
work, hunting for a house in which they 
could live, and in which, at the same time, 
they could do the work which they had 
planned. 



140 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


The house must be in the part of the 
city where poor people were living. The 
ladies searched for a long time and at last 
selected a large building which had once 
upon a time been quite a mansion. It 
stood in the midst of old, tumble-down 
tenements. Dirty, ragged children played 
in the streets near by. Nothing beautiful 
could be seen from the windows save 
patches of blue sky overhead. 

But Miss Addams and her friend were 
not troubled on that account. They bought 
comfortable furniture and set it up in the 
rooms. They hung up the lovely pictures 
they had bought in Europe. They did all 
they could to make their new home as 
pretty and cosy as possible. But they 
did not do this for their own pleasure. 
It • was for the sake of their neighbors. 

Why did nice ladies who seemed to be 
rich come to live beside them in this ugly 
part of the city? Many of the visitors 
asked this question when they began to 
get acquainted with Miss Addams and Miss 
Starr. They could not understand it at 



MAGICIAN OF FRIENDSHIP 141 


all. But they soon came to feel that these 

ladies were real friends who did not wish 

• 

to keep all of their nice things for them¬ 
selves. They delighted in sharing them 
with others. 

Miss Addams was busy with other things 
besides entertaining her poor neighbors. 
She started a kindergarten for little chil¬ 
dren whose mothers were too busy to look 
after them all of the time. The parents 
of many of these children had come from 
Poland and Italy to make their home in 
the busy city of Chicago. They missed the 
green fields and the flowers and birds of 
their own lands very much. Here in this 
new home there were only dark and narrow 
streets for their children to play in, as 
the parks were far away in another part 
of the city. So the tired, busy mothers 
must have been very happy to think of 
the pleasant room in Hull House, where 
their little ones could spend the morning 
with the kind, sweet-voiced young teacher 
who came every day to help Miss Addams 
in her work. 



142 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


You may like to hear an amusing story 
of these little tots. Though they all be¬ 
longed to poor families, yet some of them 
looked down on others. So one day it 
happened that a small Italian boy was not 
willing to sit beside another child whom 
the teacher had placed there. 

“ She eat her macaroni this way,” he 
said with scorn, as he threw his head back 
and pretended to throw the food into his 
mouth with his hand. 

“ We eat our macaroni this way,” he 
went on, as, with a make-believe fork, he 
acted as though he were eating it with nicety. 

At this, the little girl of whom he was 
speaking nodded her head. Yes, she under¬ 
stood. The boy was better brought up 
than she was, and she looked up to him on 
this account. 

Little children were not the only ones 
who came to the kindergarten at Hull 
House. There was one old woman in the 
class who was ninety years old! The poor 
creature had been left at home through the 
day while her daughter was away at her 



MAGICIAN OF FRIENDSHIP 143 


work. She had little to think of, and so 
she got into the habit of picking the plaster 
off the walls. 

“ I can’t have any one living in the tene¬ 
ment who does harm to it,” the landlord 
said, and he ordered the woman and her 
old mother out. The same thing happened 
in the next place, and they were ordered 
out again. 

“ Why shouldn’t she come to the kinder¬ 
garten and learn to keep her fingers busy 
in a nicer way? ” said the young teacher. 

It was a happy thought. The old woman 
was soon at work among the children, mak¬ 
ing bright-colored paper chains. She en¬ 
joyed herself so much that she was willing 
to make paper chains all day, and in this 
way kept herself out of any mischief. 

“ We must have a day nursery at Hull 
House,” said Miss Addams, when she 
thought of the babies who were locked into 
a room with older brothers or sisters while 
the mother was away at work. Many a 
sad accident had happened on account of 
it, too. Little backs were deformed, little 



144 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


arms and legs were broken, in the falls 
which the babies suffered when the older 
people were not there to care for them. A 
day nursery with a kind woman to care 
for the little ones would prevent such 
things. It was soon started and every 
morning many women could be seen leav¬ 
ing their babies at Hull House, before 
starting out on their day’s work. 

There were many boys living near Hull 
House. Something must be done for them, 
too. So they were invited to come and 
listen to the reading of delightful and ex¬ 
citing stories. So well were these stories 
read that the boys were only too glad to 
come again and again. The heroes of the 
old days of chivalry became real to them. 
One day they had listened to the story of 
Prince Roland, and were so deeply touched 
that one of them went dashing out of Hull 
House to keep from crying. Just then he 
met Miss Addams herself. 

“ There is no use coming here any more,” 
he told her. “ Prince Roland is dead.” 

In this way the first boys’ club was started 



MAGICIAN OF FRIENDSHIP 145 


by Miss Addams. A sewing club was formed 
for the older girls, where they learned how 
to make neat garments for the other mem¬ 
bers of their families. These young people 
were so much interested in their work, 
that a girl was disappointed if she could 
not finish the garment on the same day 
that she began it, so that she might take 
it home that very night. 

Miss Addams believed in entertainments, 
so before long a real play was performed at 
Hull House. No doubt the ones who took 
part in it were very proud. After this there 
were more plays, besides other kinds of 
entertainment for old folks as well as for 
young. 

You can hardly imagine how much 
pleasure all these things gave the poor 
people who lived near Hull House. Many 
of them were Italians who loved their own 
beautiful country very dearly and had an 
idea that the rest of America must be like 
the corner of Chicago where they lived. 
When one of these Italian womenfsawesome 
red roses at Hull House, she was filled with 



146 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


delight. But she had no idea that they had 
grown in the country near by. She thought 
that they must have come all the way from 
Italy. 

In the course of time, a “ Jane Club ” 
was started for working girls in a building 
close by; there was a gymnasium for boys; 
a “ Children’s House ” came to take the 
place of the first little day nursery; there 
was a school for the study of art, and one 
where boys and girls who loved music 
could be trained to become teachers, as 
well as to play and sing in public. 

In fact, Hull House in a few years was 
no longer one house, for many buildings 
now took the place of the one in which 
Miss Addams and her friend began their 
work so quietly and simply the eighteenth 
day of September, 1889 . 

Miss Addams has not put all of her 
thoughts into that one place. She has 
worked bravely for the people who earn 
their living in factories, trying to have the 
laws changed so that the day’s labor 
should be made shorter. More important 




Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

Jane Addams. Page 146. 







MAGICIAN OF FRIENDSHIP 147 


still, she has done all that she could to 
keep young children from being allowed 
to work in factories. She felt how cruel 
it was to shut out these little ones from 
the beautiful sunshine, and bend their 
backs with work which was too hard for 
them. 

Then, too, she has tried her utmost to 
have the laws so changed that the tene¬ 
ments where the poor live shall be more 
healthful and comfortable. Doing all these 
things and many more, is it any wonder 
she is called to-day “ the first lady in the 
land? ” 

When some of us think of her, however, 
we prefer to use the words of an old blind 
man whom she had helped, and who liked 
to speak of her as “ Kind Heart.” 



VI 


THE MAGICIAN OF LOVE 

If you leave the eastern coast of the 
United States and sail northward, you will 
come by and by to the bleak and lonely 
peninsula of Labrador. It is swept by 
cold winds from the ocean nearly all the 
year, while icebergs, from their home in 
the far north, come floating grandly down 
along its shores. These icebergs take on 
many strange shapes, and show such beau¬ 
tiful colors when the sun is shining upon 
them that they must often seem like 
fairy palaces to the boys and girls of 
Labrador. 

The parents of these children are very 
poor. They get their living by fishing, 
and when the short summer’s “ catch ” 
is bad, they and their little ones must 


MAGICIAN OF LOVE 


149 


suffer during the long, cold winter that 
follows. 

There are no roads through that country, 
no towns, no telephones. Saddest of all, 
until a few years ago, along the whole 
coast there was no physician who could 
drive away the burning fever from the sick 
child or set the broken bones of those who 
met with accidents; for the journeys are 
made with dog-sledges, and there are often 
sudden overturns and falls over rocky ledges 
or boulders of ice. 

Moreover, until lately, many of the 
Labrador children did not know the joys 
of Christmas, nor had they ever heard of 
the Good Shepherd whose birth is cele¬ 
brated on this day. 

Nowadays things are quite different 
and it is because of the loving deeds of 
one man, Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell, who 
crossed the ocean to make his home in 
that bleak country, and who works day 
after day and often night after night that 
he may bring happiness and health to the 
people of Labrador and their children. 



150 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


Jolly and merry he is, too, and always 
ready to see the funny side of everything 
that happens. He never seems tired, nor 
afraid of danger. Indeed, he appears to 
love it, and always he is kind and loving, 
and ready to forget himself in helping 
others. 

When Dr. Grenfell was a boy he lived in 
England. There he went to school and 
college and afterwards learned to be a 
surgeon by working among the sick in 
the great London hospital. 

One night he went to hear the preach¬ 
ing of an American minister, Mr. Moody. 
Mr. Moody’s words set him thinking so 
deeply that he made up his mind then 
and there to live in the way Jesus told 
us we should do. He would work for 
others and not himself: it was the only 
way to be happy, he felt sure. 

At that time there were many poor 
fishermen in the North Sea who needed 
help. 

“ I will go away to them,” Dr. Grenfell 
said to himself. “ I will do all I can to 



MAGICIAN OF LOVE 


151 


heal them when they are sick, and at the 
same time I will talk to them of the good 
God.” 

Not long afterwards he sailed on a ship 
which was carrying help to these fishermen, 
and he stayed in the North Sea healing 
and preaching till there were others to 
carry on the work. 

Then he thought of another place where 
he was needed much more. It was Labra¬ 
dor and the near-by coast of Newfound¬ 
land. Dr. Grenfel knew how long and 
bitter the winter was, what dreadful storms 
raged there, and how poor and cheerless 
were the homes of the people. But there 
was a chance to do good and to drive 
away pain, and he was glad to take it. 
So one day this good man appeared on 
the coast of Labrador to begin his work. 

Think for a moment of the boys and 
girls who lived there in the old days. As 
much as the parents loved their children, 
they could not cure them when they felt 
sick, pull out the aching teeth, nor set 
the broken bones. It was only a short 



152 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


time before Dr. Grenfell’s coming that a 
little girl froze her feet so badly that her 
father, who loved her tenderly, saw that 
she must die unless something was done 
for her. So, to save her life, he chopped 
off the feet with his axe. If a physician 
had been there he would have made her 
well without doing such a dreadful thing. 
Is not this one sad story enough to show 
how much Dr. Grenfell was needed? 

It is no wonder he was kept busy as 
soon as he began his new life. There were 
three thousand miles of coast along which 
the huts of the fishermen were scattered, 
sometimes a hundred or more miles apart. 
A physician might be needed at any time 
in any one of these lonely homes. 

In the summer season Dr. Grenfell could 
sail along these shores in his little steamer, 
stopping wherever a signal was raised. 
But even then there was danger, for thick 
fogs often settled down quite suddenly, and 
hid from sight the steep crags jutting out 
into the sea. Then, too, there was often 
an iceberg lying in the pathway of the 



MAGICIAN OF LOVE 


153 


steamer. Its course must be watched 
carefully lest it bear down upon the boat 
and crush it before it could get out of the 
way. Fierce gales, too, would sometimes 
arise, and the boat would be tossed about 
on the waves like a feather. Little did 
Dr. Grenfell care for these dangers! He 
was too busy and happy carrying help to 
those who needed it. 

The winter season was far worse when 
the waters along the shore were frozen 
over and the steamer was useless. The 
only way to travel then was by means of 
a sledge drawn by a pack of dogs. 

As the cold days set in, Dr. Grenfell set 
to work to make such a sledge, a “ koma- 
tik ” as the Eskimos call it. It was carved 
out of the trunk of an old spruce tree 
and shod with ivory from the jaw-bone 
of a whale. No nails were needed, for the 
different parts were bound together with 
thongs made out of the skin of a seal 
which Dr. Grenfell had shot with his rifle. 

Of course, when the sledge was finished 
it must have a name. What better could 



154 THE WONDER - WORKERS 


be chosen than “ Lend-a-hand,” for was it 
not to carry help to those who were in 
need? 

And so “ Lend-a-hand ” started out on 
its good work, and if it could only speak, it 
might tell many a story of rides over 
gleaming snow-fields, of falls over steep, 
ice-covered crags, of unexpected dashes 
out over the half-frozen waters along the 
shores; yes, and of sudden burials beneath 
avalanches of snow that took away the 
breath of both the dogs and their master. 

As you may remember, there are no 
roads in Labrador. The driver can find 
his way only by means of trails. Such 
trails in the lands of the frozen North are 
quite different from those which the Indians 
made long ago through the fields and forests 
of this country. 

Suppose a traveler in his dog-team 
tramples out a pathway through the drifts 
of snow that spread over the land as far 
as eyes can see. The fierce wind fol¬ 
lows close after and in a few minutes 
there is no trace left of either man or dogs. 



MAGICIAN OF LOVE 


155 


Thus the only way to mark out a safe 
path is by means of tall poles set into 
the earth. The Labrador dogs are trained 
so that they watch for these poles and 
scarcely need to be guided by their master, 
as they dash along through the icy air, 
going mile after mile without stopping 
or turning out of the course they are to 
follow. 

“ Hold tight,” Dr. Grenfell would tell 
you, if you should visit him in Labrador 
and go with him for a ride in the “ Lend-a- 
hand.” 

Woe to you if you do not mind this 
direction, for at any moment there may 
come a sudden leap over a snow bank, or 
a bump on a sharp rock. Then away you 
will go through the air over the dogs’ heads, 
and you may land head first in a snow 
bank with breath all gone. There you will 
stick till your kind friend reaches you and 
digs you out. 

This dog-sledge has a busy life. carry¬ 
ing its master through the wild country, 
to old people and young. Perhaps you 



156 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


would like to hear of the way he and a 
friend spent one winter night. They were 
about to start out on a long ride to see a 
sick priest; the dogs had just finished 
their supper of whale-meat and were tug¬ 
ging at their traces to be off, when an 
excited young man drove up to the door. 

“ My Johnnie has broken his thigh,” 
he said. “ Can you come right over and 
see him? ” 

It was fast getting dark, the night was 
bitter cold, and the ride would be long, 
yet the doctor did not think of refusing. 
After a hearty supper he wrapped himself 
in his big fur coat, and untying the dogs, 
he and his friend jumped into the “ Lend- 
a-hand ” and were off. Away into the 
darkness went the sledge and its riders, 
while the excited dogs, glad to be once 
more on the go, dashed wildly on their 
way. 

It was a rough journey, and more than 
once Dr. Grenfell felt that Johnnie’s leg 
might not be the only one broken, as the 
sledge went suddenly down, down, over a 



MAGICIAN OF LOVE 


157 


steep and rocky hillside, and landed him 
breathless far below. 

But at last he arrived safe and sound 
at Johnnie’s doorway. Such a poor little 
hut as it was, so cold and bare! It 
had scarcely any furniture save a small 
stove in which the burning wood was try¬ 
ing hard to keep Jack Frost from entering 
the hut. 

On a rude bench lay six-year-old Johnnie, 
who turned big, scared eyes toward the 
doctor as he opened the door. The good 
physician, wrapped in his frosty, fur coat, 
must have looked like a big, kindly bear. 

Not a moment could be lost, for the little 
boy was in great pain. So the doctor set 
to work at once and, clearing a place on 
the floor, got a board, scraped the ice 
from it, and made a box-splint in which to 
place the poor broken thigh. Two hours 
passed before the splint was done, while 
Johnnie lay waiting in his father’s arms, 
dozing off again and again, only to wake 
with a cry of pain. 

Then, when all was ready, the kind helper, 



158 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


chloroform, put the boy into a deep, quiet 
sleep, and when he awoke the leg was set 
and his troubles were over. 

The doctor could now think of his own 
tired body, and he stretched himself out 
on the floor to get the sleep he needed so 
much before he should set out on another 
errand of mercy. 

When he awoke, the morning sun was 
sending its first rays through the little 
window and Johnnie, near by, was smiling 
merrily, and patting the head of one of 
the dogs. 

A few minutes afterwards the physician 
and his friend had left the hut far be¬ 
hind, and were racing along in the sledge 
over the ice hummocks by the shore to 
visit the sick priest many miles away. 

Hour after hour they traveled, while all 
the time the snow was falling faster and 
faster and piling up great drifts through 
which the dogs had hard work to make 
their way. 

Hark! a voice rings through the air, and 
in the thick-falling snow the doctor can 



MAGICIAN OF LOVE 


159 


barely see the figure of a man standing 
alone in the trail before him, and watching 
for his coming. 

This man tells a sad story: a boy who 
has been out hunting ducks with his brother, 
has been shot accidentally. The hut where 
he lives is but a short distance away in the 
woods. Will Dr. Grenfell come? 

There can be but one answer. The dogs 
are turned from the shore and in a few 
minutes the doctor finds himself at a 
rough log-house in the midst of the woods. 
As he enters, he sees half-dressed, ragged 
children looking with longing eyes at a bit 
of bread on the table. It is all there is to 
eat in the hut. Even this has been given 
by a poor neighbor. 

A boy with blue eyes and curly yellow 
hair lies on the earthen floor. It is he who 
has been shot. The doctor sees at a glance 
that little can be done except to make the 
pain lighter. He does this with choking 
throat, then leaves him to go on with his 
journey to the sick priest. 

The storm is still raging and the dogs 



160 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


lose themselves again and again in the 
drifting snow. Their master sees it is not 
possible to keep up much longer, and that 
he must stop when he arrives at the next 
house. 

At last it is reached, and the travelers 
are made welcome by the man and his 
wife who live here. Their wet clothes are 
hung up to dry. An eider duck is set cook¬ 
ing over the fire, the one mattress on which 
the people were sleeping when the doctor 
arrived is given up to him and his friend. 
It seems delightful to be warm and com¬ 
fortable again after the long journey in 
the fearful storm. 

By the next morning the snow has piled 
so high about the house that the host has 
to get out of the window in the loft to 
dig out a pathway in front of the door. 
Now the dogs must be hunted up, for they 
are sound asleep in snow burrows which 
they dug out for themselves. 

When they are once more harnessed and 
ready, the start is made. But the snow has 
piled so high during the night it is almost 



MAGICIAN OF LOVE 


161 


impossible to get on. Ah! help is at hand. 
A party of men on snow-shoes are making 
their way to meet Dr. Grenfell and to 
tread down a path so that he may be able 
to reach the priest before it is too late. 
With their help the journey is over at 
last, and the doctor reaches the sick man’s 
side in time to give him help and cheer 
before he dies. 

Do you wonder now that the doctor 
gave the name of “ Lend-a-hand ” to his 
dog-sledge, when he has to take such 
journeys as this in dreary Labrador? 

Sometimes the “ Lend-a-hand ” serves 
not only to carry him on his way, but is 
his shelter at night when he has lost the 
trail and is far from any house. Then it 
is that the sledge is tilted up on one side 
and covered with a thatch of boughs, 
while a snow-bed is dug out of the drift 
below. In this bed the doctor places his 
sleeping-bag, crawls inside, and makes ready 
for his night’s rest, quite sure that God will 
care for him here as tenderly as in his own 
home. 



162 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


One night he had a stranger bed than 
this. He had lost his way and had been 
wandering for hours in the dark night 
when he found himself beside a tiny hut on 
the seashore. An old couple made him wel¬ 
come and gave him bread and tea, — all 
they had to offer. After this simple supper, 
he stretched himself on a settle before the 
fire to sleep. But before long there were 
strange noises below him, which kept him 
again and again from dozing off. 

It seems that the good man of the house 
had shut up his poultry in the settle so 
that they, as well as himself, might have 
a warm home in the icy, wintry weather. 
And now, as the morning drew near, the 
wakeful cock was trying to tell the world 
what time it was. 

How pleasant it would be, thought the 
doctor, to choke that noisy rooster. But 
no, that would not be treating his host right. 
So he contented himself by stretching 
down his hand and holding the bird’s 
neck between his fingers so that he could 
not crow. Now for a quiet doze. Alas, 





MAGICIAN OF LOVE 


163 


it lasted but a few minutes, for the fingers 
lost their hold and the shrill crowing again 
filled the air. Morning came at last, but 
little of the needed sleep had visited Dr. 
Grenfell’s eyes. 

There was a time when the “ Lend-a- 
hand ” might have been called “ Lend- 
a-leg.” This was when the doctor carried 
a wooden leg to a lame boy who had been 
in need of one for a long time. The child 
was delighted when he saw the precious 
bundle in his good friend’s hands, and 
knew that he could once more walk with¬ 
out crutches and take part in the sports 
of his playmates. 

Once the “ Lend-a-hand ” brought the 
doctor into great danger. It was Easter 
Sunday and he was on his way to visit 
a sick person sixty miles away. He was 
crossing a small inlet covered with ice. 
It was not as thick as he supposed, and 
sledge, rider and dogs had a sudden tum¬ 
ble into the freezing water below. 

Quick as thought, Dr. Grenfell cut the 
dogs loose and scrambled with them upon 



164 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


a piece of ice; a moment afterwards the 
“ Lend-a-hand ” had sunk out of sight. 
And now the ice where he was standing 
broke apart. Again he had to think quickly 
what to do. He pulled off his heavy clothes, 
and with his dogs following after, he swam 
to another ice-floe. It was no larger than 
a dining-table, yet here he had to stay for 
a whole day and night, slowly drifting 
along the coast, yet too far from shore to 
try to reach it by swimming. 

He was drenched through, and had lost 
hat, coat and gloves. The wind was 
fiercely cold, and he must freeze to death 
unless he should soon get help of some 
kind. He thought of the dogs; it seemed 
very hard to do it, but he must kill some 
of them to save his own life. He picked 
out three of the eight for the sacrifice. Soon 
afterwards he was wrapped in their warm 
skins, and their dead bodies were piled up 
for a shield against the wind. Even the 
legs of the animals were put to use, for 
out of them he made a pole to which he 
fastened his shirt as a flag of distress. 



MAGICIAN OF LOVE 


165 


It happened by good fortune that some 
men who were out seal hunting saw the 
ice-floe with its queer-looking load. When 
they reached home they told the people in 
the village that some one was adrift on 
the ice outside. One of the men seized a 
spy-glass and went at once to the top of 
a tall cliff. Yes, his friends had spoken 
truly, and no doubt the castaway was Dr. 
Grenfell, who had probably brought himself 
into danger while on an errand of mercy. 

It was not possible to launch a boat 
just then, because the ice was ££ pan¬ 
ning ” and was likely to close in around it. 
All that night the people watched Dr. 
Grenfell from the shore and when the morn¬ 
ing came, although the danger was still 
great, a party started out to save him. 

If they had waited a little longer, it 
would have been too late, for he had 
already become snow-blind and very weak, 
while both hands and feet were frozen. 

He was a strange-looking sight, for he 
was wrapped in the bloody skins of the dogs. 
But the men who had saved him had no 



166 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


time to think of that as they got to shore 
with him as quickly as possible, and 
placing him in a sledge, carried him off 
to the hospital. 

“ Hospital! ” you may exclaim. “ Are 
there hospitals on those bleak and lonely 
shores?” Yes, and it is through the 
work of Dr. Grenfell himself, who has made 
the people in America and England so in¬ 
terested in Labrador that they have not 
only given money to build hospitals, but 
have sent nurses to care for the sick and 
suffering who are brought there. 

When Dr. Grenfell had been in Labrador 
but a short time, he found that there were 
many children who did not know what 
the word Christmas meant. They had 
never heard of Christmas trees; they had 
never hung up their stockings on Christ¬ 
mas Eve, nor listened for the coming of 
Santa Claus down the chimney. Worst 
of all, they knew nothing about the birth 
of the Christ-Child and of his tender love 
for all little ones. 

Of course, the good doctor took great 



MAGICIAN OF LOVE 


167 


delight in telling the beautiful story wher¬ 
ever he went, as well as playing Santa 
Claus and bringing the loveliest surprises 
to whole families of children. 

He has written and talked so much 
about his little Labrador friends, that 
nowadays many boys and girls in the 
United States send Christmas letters and 
presents to their brothers and sisters in 
the cold land north of them. The boxes 
begin to arrive months beforehand, for the 
homes of the children are scattered far 
and wide and it takes a long time to dis¬ 
tribute the gifts. The older folks must 
be very happy when they receive the par¬ 
cels. They think of the joyful faces they 
will see on Christmas morning when real 
dollies with blue eyes and rosy cheeks, 
trains of cars, and toy tea-sets are spread 
out before the eyes of the little ones. 
Sometimes one of these store dolls is hung 
up on the wall. 

“ It is too beautiful to hold in my 
hands,” its little owner may think. “ I 
must keep it to look at.” 



168 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


No doubt this child has played doll 
before with a rag wrapped about a stick 
of wood, and so it takes her a long time 
to get used to this new and wonderful 
baby with real hair, — a dolly that will 
even cry, and open and shut its eyes. 

Dr. Grenfell has told the story of one of 
the Christmases when he played Santa 
Claus for the children who live at the little 
harbor of St. Anthony, Newfoundland. It 
made him quite sad when he learned that 
few of the children in the place had ever 
owned a toy in their whole lives. There 
was hardly a girl there who had ever 
hugged a real dolly in her loving arms. 

He had a stock of presents which he had 
brought with him, but they would scarcely 
go around, he thought, when he found 
how many old people, as well as boys and 
girls, were anxious to share in the good 
time. Still, he would do his best, and he 
felt quite sure that each one would be 
satisfied with a little. In the first place 
a visit was made to the woods near by to 
get a Christmas tree, and there was great 




MAGICIAN OF LOVE 


169 


excitement when it was brought in and set 
up. There was an old man eighty years 
old, who had never seen one before or taken 
part in any Christmas “ doings,” and he 
was as interested as any of the children. 

Many secrets went flying about; there 
were Christmas buns to be made; there 
was even a whisper that a barrel of apples 
was hidden away somewhere in the house, 
and that when the time came it would be 
brought to light. 

And then the very night before the great 
day, Santa Claus (Dr. Grenfell, you know) 
was sent for. A sick woman who lived 
many miles away, was in great pain, but 
the dogs were fresh and it seemed as though 
the doctor could go there and get back 
in time. 

At first the sledge dashed along at a 
great rate, but after a time the way be¬ 
came rough and difficult and the dogs 
fell again and again through the soft snow. 
Could the journey be made in time for 
Dr. Grenfell to get back to the Christmas 
tree? He began to fear he could not. 



170 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


At last the log-house where the woman 
lay ill was reached, and the doctor found 
he was in time to save her life. 

After he had done all he could, he 
stretched his sleeping-bag on the floor 
near the fire and was soon fast asleep, 
for he was very tired from the hard ride. 
With the first light of the morning, he 
sprang up and called the dogs. In a few 
minutes all were ready for the homeward 
start. 

It was a real Christmas morning. The 
air was clear and still, the sky was blue 
with never a cloud, and over in the east 
the sunrise showed itself in the most 
beautiful crimson garments. As for the 
dogs, it seemed as though they knew there 
was no time to spare, they rushed along 
so madly. 

Suddenly they began to bark, for they 
had discovered that a team was ahead. 
It soon came in sight and a voice shouted 
“ What cheer? ” Then, with surprise, the 
owner of the voice exclaimed: “ The doc¬ 
tor, as I live! ” 



MAGICIAN OF LOVE 171 


He went on to say that people were out 
in sledges all over the country trying to 
find him. A boy had been shot and was 
bleeding badly; he needed help at once. 

There was but one thing to do, and of 
course the doctor did it. He gave the 
word, and the dogs started off in the di¬ 
rection of the boy’s home. When it was 
reached, the sun was already setting. The 
doctor hurried into the house to find a 
boy of ten years stretched on the floor by 
the stove. His mother was beside him. 

She soon told the story. Her lad Clem 
had seen a gull and borrowed a loaded gun 
with which to shoot it. But a high block 
of ice was in his way and he started to 
climb over it. He pushed the gun up ahead 
of him, though its barrel was pointed to¬ 
wards him. Off it went, and the bullet 
tore a deep hole in his leg, blowing the 
knee-cap to pieces. 

“ What shall us do? ” asked the mother, 
when she had finished the story. 

With busy fingers the doctor examined 
the wound; then he quickly gave one order 



172 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


after another. Clean cloths, boiling water, 
and a board for a splint must be brought. 

As soon as the wound was dressed and 
the leg bound in the splint, he got ready 
to hurry back to St. Anthony for the 
Christmas tree and the eager children who 
were waiting for him there. But he told 
the mother that the sick boy should go 
with him, for he knew that the child could 
be better cared for at the hospital there, 
than in the poor, bare log-house. 

Once more the dogs were made ready and 
the homeward start was made. It seemed as 
though they understood what need there 
was of hurry. Up hill and down flew the 
team, till at last the lights of the hospital 
could be seen. And the “ Room ” that held 
the wonderful Christmas tree, — this, too, 
was ablaze with light. A crowd of people 
were gathered and waiting anxiously for 
the coming of Santa Claus. 

When they saw their good friend and 
the present he had brought the hospital — 
the sick boy who had come to be healed 
of his terrible wound — perhaps they were 




MAGICIAN OF LOVE 


173 


a bit disappointed. They had hoped to 
see Santa Claus appear, and certainly Dr. 
Grenfell did not look like Santa Claus. 

A short time afterwards another sledge 
drove up to the door. It held a big box 
and two strange-looking beings. Their 
faces were almost hidden by big mufflers. 
Two pairs of bright eyes could be seen, 
however, as well as long icicles hanging 
from mustache and whiskers. These strange 
beings seemed quite out of breath from a 
hurried journey. Surely they were Santa 
Claus and his good wife! And the box! 
Why, of course, it was full of the presents 
they had brought to the people of St. 
Anthony. 

How excited every one was! And how 
sure all the children were that they were 
looking at the real, true Santa Claus. 
It would not have been so much fun if 
they had known that the box was empty, 
for the presents had been placed on the 
tree hours before. And that these wonder¬ 
ful beings, Santa Claus and his wife, were 
none other than Dr. Grenfell and his friend, 



174 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


who had whisked away to another house 
and “ dressed up,” no one would have 
guessed for a moment. 

Of course, there was a joyful evening; 
there was never anything like it before. 
The room was filled with happy people 
and rang with their shouts of delight. 
But overhead in the hospital ward lay 
a sick boy who was Dr. Grenfell’s present 
to himself. It was the best kind of a 
present possible, for the child’s life had 
been saved and he would live to have 
many happy years with his mother and 
friends. It is no wonder that the good doc¬ 
tor felt he himself had the greatest joy in 
giving, beside which all other pleasures 
are small indeed. 

One of the most useful presents Dr. 
Grenfell has given to the people of Labra¬ 
dor is the herd of reindeer, which were 
sent all the way from Norway. 

“ Why should not these animals live 
here among my poor friends ? ” he thought. 
“ It is certainly cold enough in Labrador 
for them to thrive and do well. Then the 



MAGICIAN OF LOVE 


175 


children can have the fresh milk which 
they need so much.” 

This good doctor was never satisfied 
with merely thinking. As soon as possible 
he purchased the reindeer and they came 
sailing in a big ship across the ocean to 
their new home. In a short time they 
were frisking over the Labrador fields as 
though they had always lived there; not 
long afterwards there were baby reindeer 
to delight the hearts of the children, and 
the herd is growing larger all the time. 

It would be hard to tell you all the things 
which keep Dr. Grenfell busy through the 
year. He cares for the sick people along 
the three thousand miles of coast. He 
sets the broken arms and legs, and he pulls 
out the aching teeth. He baptizes the 
babies, and marries the young men and 
women in lonely places, where no minister 
ever goes. He gets wooden legs for poor 
cripples. He carries food and clothing 
to those who are in need. He holds meet¬ 
ings wherever he goes, telling the people 
of the love of the good God, and of the work 



176 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


Jesus, the Christ, did on earth. He even 
keeps a diary for the sake of telling the 
newspapers in other lands of what is hap¬ 
pening in Labrador. This is to interest 
the readers of the newspapers so that they 
will send help to the suffering people of 
Labrador. 

During the summer Dr. Grenfell navi¬ 
gates his little steamer as it makes its 
way along the rough and rocky shore. Some¬ 
times he has to leave it and row for miles 
in an open boat to a place where the 
steamer cannot enter. Through the long 
cold winter he rides over the country in his 
dog-sledge to carry help to the sick and 
the suffering. 

While his hands are busy, his mind is 
also at work, making plans in regard to 
the hospitals which he has built along the 
coast, the shops and stores which he has 
set up to give people work, and the herd of 
reindeer which is to be of such use to them. 
There are lending libraries, too, which he 
has started, and which he must think of, 
for he knows that books are sure to bring 




Copyright, 1904, by Harper & Brothers. 


Dr. Grenfell on his steamer, the Strathcona. Page 176. 











































MAGICIAN OF LOVE 177 


pleasure to both big folks and little. All 
these things and many more keep Dr. 
Grenfell’s mind and hands so busy that the 
weeks and the months fly swiftly past. 

Is it strange, therefore, that this magician 
of love is one of the happiest of men ? 



VII 


THE MAGICIAN OF FAITH 

“ The Kid Judge ” is rather a queer 
name by which to call any one, isn’t it? 
It doesn’t sound very respectful, yet its 
owner, Judge Lindsey, has come to be 
known by it throughout the country, be¬ 
cause of the good he has done to children 
who have need of love and sympathy. 

Denver is a large city in the western 
State of Colorado. As in other cities, many 
rich people live there. But there are also 
many who are poor. There are boys and 
girls in Denver who grow up without 
knowing how beautiful the word “ home ” 
is. They live for the most part in the 
streets, where they learn to lie and to steal. 
Sooner or later these boys and girls are 
sent to reform schools or the jail. 

These are the young people whom Judge 
Lindsey likes to help. He has taken them 


MAGICIAN OF FAITH 


179 


into his heart and had faith in them when 
other people have turned from them with 
scorn. This faith has been like refreshing 
rain to plants that were fast withering. The 
hearts of these children have opened up 
and shown that they were not different 
from the hearts of others. They could 
love and trust, and could be made strong 
in goodness. 

Let us go back to the child days of 
Judge Lindsey himself. When he was a 
small boy, he and his younger brother lived 
with an aunt and grandfather on a farm 
in Jackson, Tennessee. Their father was 
a railroad man and had charge of the 
telegraph system on his road. 

When Ben was eleven years old, his 
parents decided to make their home in 
Denver, and sent for their sons to join them 
there. The children enjoyed the jour¬ 
ney. The conductors were very kind, 
and the time passed quickly, for the boys 
were kept busy listening to stories which 
an old man told them of days long ago, 
when he traveled over the very prairies 



180 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


they were now crossing. At that time 
there were no towns and villages, nor even 
farms to pass. Neither were there any 
railroads. In every direction there were 
only great stretches of grass where thou¬ 
sands of buffaloes were quietly feeding. 
Ben listened so eagerly to the stories of 
these old days that he could scarcely turn 
his eyes away from the old man’s face to 
look out of the car window. 

When he and his brother reached Denver 
he was astonished at everything he saw. 
The high buildings seemed very wonderful 
to this boy who had been brought up on 
a farm. 

Some of Ben’s school days were spent 
in a convent at Notre Dame, Indiana. 
He read the Lives of the Saints there, 
and he thought it must be more beauti¬ 
ful to be a saint than anything else in the 
world. It was not easy, either; they did 
things to make themselves suffer and so 
grow brave and patient. And just because 
it was beautiful and not easy, Ben said: 
“ I will become a saint myself.” 



MAGICIAN OF FAITH 181 


There was a very good priest named 
Father Hudson at the convent, whom Ben 
loved dearly. Ben learned that this priest 
used to put pebbles in his shoes. “ I will 
make myself better,” the priest had thought, 
“ by bearing discomforts pleasantly.” So 
Ben put pebbles in his own shoes for a 
while, hoping to make himself as good as 
Father Hudson. 

All the time that he was in Denver and 
also at school in the convent, he was 
homesick for the farm at Jackson, and at 
last Ben’s father told him he could go 
back. 

He stayed at Jackson till he was seven¬ 
teen years old. His relations sent him to 
a Baptist school there. He had soon given 
up all thought of becoming a saint, and a 
new idea filled his mind, — he wished to 
become a lawyer. 

The news came that Ben’s father was 
ill and that he could never be strong again. 
He needed his son’s help, so Ben left his 
pleasant home in Jackson and started at 
once for Denver, where he went to work 



182 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


to help get money enough to support the 
family. 

When his father died Ben was eighteen, 
and being the oldest of four children, was 
now the head of the little family. He had 
saved one hundred and fifty dollars which 
he had earned. Nearly all of this sum was 
spent in paying his father’s funeral ex¬ 
penses. 

Ben’s mother had never been used to 
hard work, and was far from well. It 
must have seemed very hard to her now to 
move into a little cottage in the poor part 
of the city and to pinch and save in every 
way to “ make both ends meet.” 

Ben himself was getting only ten dollars 
a month as office boy in a real estate office. 
To get a little more money, before the 
office opened in the morning he carried 
newspapers, and at night when it had 
closed he worked as a janitor. Soon after¬ 
wards, however, he got a place where he 
could earn twenty-five dollars a month as 
office boy. 

After a while his younger brother had 



MAGICIAN OF FAITH 183 


a chance to work in a law office. Ben had 
not given up his wish to become a lawyer 
when he grew up. Where this idea came 
from no one knew, but it had a strong hold 
upon him. Now, in a law office, there 
was a chance to take the first step. So 
he proposed to his brother that each should 
take the other’s job. The change was made, 
and Benjamin B. Lifidsey was on the road 
to becoming a lawyer. 

In his new place he copied letters, did 
errands, carried books to the court rooms 
and back again, and scrubbed the floors. 
Between times he had a chance to read 
the big law books in the office, and every 
spare moment he could get he spent por¬ 
ing over one of these. 

He was a pale, sickly-looking fellow, 
small for his age, and he appeared much 
younger than he really was. Night after 
night, when he should have been getting 
good sleep, he sat up reading the law books 
which were as interesting to him as exci¬ 
ting stories are to most boys. Besides, he 
was anxious, oh, so very anxious, to learn as 



184 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


fast as possible. It is not strange that in 
the daytime, after studying late the night 
before, he seemed so stupid that his employer 
was often provoked with him. Then he 
would be ashamed of himself, and hope¬ 
less of ever getting on in the world. 

When he was at home he was unhappy, 
too. He saw his poor mother suffering 
from poverty, when all her life everything 
had been made easy for her. Ben could 
just remember the old days “ down South ” 
when there were negro servants to wait 
upon his mother, and horses on which to 
go riding through the beautiful country. 
It was dreadful to think of the change. 

He was so anxious to save every penny 
that was possible, that he did not get 
himself proper food for his luncheon in 
the midst of the busy day. Even now he 
can remember the molasses and ginger¬ 
bread he ate then, and which nearly made 
him ill. 

Discouraged as he got at times, he kept 
on, learning more and more from the big 
law books. At last his salary was in- 



MAGICIAN OF FAITH 185 


creased, and he was no longer an office 
boy, but a regular clerk. 

About this time he and some of his 
young friends, who were also interested in 
the law, hired a room and played at hold¬ 
ing court. They studied all sorts of law 
questions and defended imaginary people. 
As it turned out, the Denver University 
Law School started with this class of 
young men. 

In those early days, Mr. Lindsey had 
one great thought of what the law could do 
and of what he himself wished to do when 
he knew more of it. People who were in 
trouble could be helped by it, and he would 
be one who would give that help. 

On the summit of the hill on whose 
slope Denver is built, stood the State Capi¬ 
tol, built of solid granite. As the young 
man looked at it, reaching up toward the sky, 
and with its face toward the lofty moun¬ 
tains in the west, he thought of it as the 
Temple of the Law. It stood for the free¬ 
dom which America gives to troubled 
people who come from all over the world. 



186 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


It was a beautiful thought. Mr. Lindsey 
little knew then how many laws were yet 
needed to protect the poor and ignorant. 
He was waking up, however, and even then 
getting ready for the fight against wrong 
into which he would enter by and by. 

After years of hard work, the examina¬ 
tions had all been passed, and he had be¬ 
come a lawyer. People found out in a 
short time that he was different from many 
others who followed the same profession. 
He was not willing to work for a person if 
he thought him in the wrong. But he was 
always ready to fight, and fight hard, for 
any one whom he believed to be right. 
Indeed, he fought so hard and so well that 
he did not stop with being a mere lawyer. 
Before many years he was made Judge of 
the County Court, and took his place in 
the Denver Court-house to try the people 
who should be brought before him. 

Far overhead, on the top of the dome of 
the building, stood a figure of Justice. 
This figure seemed to say: “ I stand for the 
right that shall be done to every one who 



MAGICIAN OF FAITH 


187 


asks for it in the hall below.” Mr. Lindsey 
made up his mind when he took his place 
there to see that justice should be done. 

One wintry day, soon after he became a 
judge, he had been busy for hours listen¬ 
ing to a tiresome case about some furni¬ 
ture. It was already afternoon when he 
was asked to stop and attend to a matter 
which he could settle in a minute or two. 
He said he was willing to do so, and a 
small boy was brought before him. The 
child was trembling and looked up with 
big, scared eyes. A paper was put in Judge 
Lindsey’s hands telling him why this boy 
had been arrested. He had been stealing 
coal from the tracks, and there was no one 
who could defend him. 

As the judge read the paper, he knew 
that the little fellow was watching him, 
still trembling and frightened, trying to 
tell from the judge’s face what would be 
done with him. 

How Judge Lindsey pitied the boy! 
But he thought: “ There is no help for 
it. The child has stolen. I must stand 



188 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


by the law, which says that in such a case he 
must go to the State Reform School.” 

So, when he had settled the case, as he 
thought, he turned to go on with the mat¬ 
ter of the furniture which he had put 
aside. Just then a wrinkled old woman, 
with her head wrapped in a shawl, got up 
from a seat in the far corner of the court 
room and came towards him. She began to 
talk, but she was so excited that it was 
hard to understand a word that she said. 
When she found that no one would listen 
to her, the poor old creature clutched at her 
hair and screamed aloud. She wanted to 
save the boy, but there was no one who 
understood or who would listen. The bai¬ 
liff took hold of her and dragged her out 
of the room, but she fought against him and 
filled the air with her screams. 

When she was out of sight, Judge Lind¬ 
sey still heard those bitter cries and screams. 
He felt so bad that he could not go on with 
the day’s business, so he went away to his 
own rooms where he'could quietly think the 
matter over. What ought he to do? The 



MAGICIAN OF FAITH 189 


boy had broken the law; according to the 
law he must be punished. The cries of 
the poor mother did not alter the matter. 
He could still hear those pitiful screams, 
and it seemed as though he could not bear 
it. At last he sent word that the boy should 
be given back to his mother. 

Even though he was a judge he felt that 
he had hardly a right to give such an order. 
But there was the woman almost wild with 
her trouble, and there was the poor little 
boy who was so very young that he seemed 
almost a baby! Yes, those people must be 
helped. 

That night Judge Lindsey went with an 
officer to the boy’s home. They found 
the family living in two rooms in a dirty, 
wretched hut. The father was sick in 
bed; the mother and children were nearly 
starving, and it seemed that the boy who 
had been brought into court that day had 
gone to the railroad tracks and stolen coal 
to keep his parents and the baby warm. 

After Judge Lindsey had listened to the 
story he talked to the boy, telling him 



190 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


he must be careful in the future to obey 
the law, but this time he should not be 
sent to the reform school. He should have 
another chance. The boy’s mother was 
so happy that she kissed the judge’s hands, 
and the neighbors flocked in to thank him. 

As he went home that night, the judge 
was very busy thinking. He had made up 
his mind that it was wrong to have only 
one court for both old people and young 
ones. There should be a special court for 
children who had done wrong, and the laws 
for them should be different, too. He was 
very sure of it. 

A few days after this another case, 
which came before him to be tried, had also 
to do with children. Three small boys, 
crying bitterly, were brought before him. 
He was told that they had stolen some 
pigeons from the barn of a man named 
Fay. When the judge heard the name 
Fay, he suddenly remembered something 
that had happened when he himself was a 
boy. He and his young friends did not 
like the man, for he was cross and disagree- 




Judge Lindsey in his juvenile court, Denver. Page 190. 

































. 




















MAGICIAN OF FAITH 191 


able to boys. They thought it would be 
a good joke to rob him of his pigeons. 
But when they drew near the barn, Ben 
Lindsey had backed out, but not because 
it was wrong, for he hadn’t thought of 
that. He had wanted to take the pigeons 
for the sake of teasing Mr. Fay and punish¬ 
ing him for being mean to himself and the 
other boys. Yes, that was the way he had 
looked on it, and he gave up simply because 
he wasn’t as brave as his friends. 

As he thought of those old days, he looked 
across the court room and saw Mr. Fay. 
Yes, he was the very man whom he knew 
in his young days. 

“ Bring the boys into my chambers,” 
he told the clerk. 

When they were there alone with him 
they told their story. Two of the boys 
believed Mr. Fay had taken their pigeons. 
They had a quarrel with him, and then he 
had called in a policeman to settle the 
matter. After that, they tried to get even 
with him by taking his own pigeons. 

Judge Lindsey listened till the boys had 



192 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


finished. Then he talked to them about 
the harm of doing wrong. He told them he 
would let them go free this time, but he 
warned them that they must be careful 
in the future and obey the law. 

He had done his duty as a judge, but 
when the boys had gone away, he went to 
the clerk and told him it was all wrong to 
bring such children into the court room and 
act towards them as though they were 
grown people. They ought not to be sent 
to prison and lose their good names for 
life, when they did not understand the 
wrong they were doing. 

Judge Lindsey did not stop after saying 
what he felt about the matter. He began 
to make a study of the laws, and went 
to the jails to find out how the children- 
who were brought there, were treated. 
He learned of the ways in which many 
boys were treated, so that they were led 
on and on till they ended by becoming bad 
men. He saw how they were punished and 
made to suffer. 

He lay awake nights thinking of them 



MAGICIAN OF FAITH 193 


and making plans so that poor children, 
like the little boy who had taken the coal 
for the sake of his mother and sister, should 
not be treated in the same way as wicked 
men and women. Old laws must be changed 
and new and better ones made. Children 
must have a court of their own. Besides 
this, there must be public playgrounds and 
baths, where they could be kept busy and 
happy, and have less time to get into mis¬ 
chief. 

Work was needed, — a great deal of 
work, — and there was no one ready to do 
it but Judge Lindsey himself. He saw 
this and he knew there was a hard fight 
before him. But it was a good fight, and 
he was not afraid. Little did he know then 
how much he would be misunderstood, and 
that before he got through he would come 
near losing his own good name. 

“ That man is crazy,” people said. “ He 
is taking the part of bad boys and girls 
against the police.” 

He did take the part of the children, it 
is true. But he wished only to have them 



194 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


treated fairly. Those boys whom others 
called bad he called weak. “ They must 

4 

be helped to grow strong,” he said to him¬ 
self over and over. 

How was this to be done, when these 
children had no one at home to teach them 
what is right and what is wrong? First 
of all, he would show such children that 
he was their friend and that he cared for 
them. Next, they must learn to trust him. 
And after that, they must learn to be 
trusted. He never asked them to tell 
tales. No, he showed them that he ad¬ 
mired them for standing by each other, 
no matter what wrong had been done. 

It was a long time before they were 
willing to believe he was really their friend. 
At first they sneered at him when he told 
them he wished to help them. He showed 
them, however, that he was not merely 
talking; he was doing things all the time 
to prove how good a friend he was. After 
a while they saw this and gave him their 
love. Yes, street urchins, who had been 
growing up with fear of every one, who did 



MAGICIAN OF FAITH 195 


not know what home and tender care 
meant, had this love stowed away in their 
hearts, all ready to be given out. And 
Judge Lindsey was the one who drew it 
forth. 

It is true that boys still came before him 
for breaking laws, and many a time he 
gave the order that they were to be pun¬ 
ished. He had to do this, he told them, or 
he would lose his place as judge. After 
they had come to know him as their friend, 
they trusted him completely, feeling that 
the punishment would be as light as 
possible. 

Many years have gone by since Judge 
Lindsey began his great work. There is 
now in Denver a Juvenile Court, such as 
he wished for long ago. People from other 
parts of the world go there to see how it 
is carried on, and learn how to treat the 
boys and girls who do wrong in their own 
lands in such a way that they may behave 
better and take the right road which 
leads to being good men and women. 

There are public playgrounds and pub- 



196 THE WONDER-WORKERS 


lie baths in Denver, where the young 
folks may have so much pleasure that they 
will have little time to think of doing wrong 
deeds. Old laws have been changed, and 
new and good ones made especially for 
children, just as Judge Lindsey hoped. 

Those things which have just been men¬ 
tioned are but a small part of what this 
man has done for the good of his country. 
Yet, surely, the children of America will 
like best to think of him as the “ Kid 
Judge of Denver,” for whom many of the 
poor boys and girls of that city would 
almost be willing to give their lives. He 
has given them a “ chance.” 


THE END. 











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